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7 Steps to plan for re-opening your biz

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented new challenges and created questions about what life in your biz will look like going forward.

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Photo by @morningbrew from Unsplash.com

Many biz owners are asking the same questions: How do we effectively plan, communicate and execute new guidelines that follow health and government guidelines for all our establishments and employees when we are all experiencing different stages of this pandemic?

CRB USA shares its approaches to re-opening to help those looking for guidance during this time. The plan is outlined in a three-phased approach to cautiously enter the “new normal”.

  • The Restricted Phase is the most stringent as we re-learn the safe use of offices with physical distancing and new standards for cleanliness. Among other guidelines, conferencing rooms will not be available, no guests will be allowed, and masks will be required. The good news: this is expected to be the shortest phase.
  • The Controlled Phase brings back some office amenities and we potentially re-work seating plans to bring teams together, flexibly and safely. In time, clients may be allowed to visit the offices again. The duration of this phase is uncertain, and we are planning for it to extend at least through the end of 2020.
  • The Unrestricted Phase means that things are mostly getting back to normal. To enter this phase, it seems that guidance from the global healthcare community would be a prerequisite.

This guide is primarily focused on preparations for the first phase of re-entry, which we have identified as the “Restricted Phase.” Below you will find a step-by-step approach that serves as a guide to inform local leaders as they prepare for re-entering the workplace.

Step 1: Establish your team

Establish a re-entry task force. When establishing your team, considering creating a multi-disciplinary task force. Members could include architects, human resources, marketing, safety and management. This task force is responsible for developing the specific approach to re-entering the workplace and communicating it across the company.

Tip: Create a roles and responsibilities matrix. This matrix should identify members of your “workplace re-entry team” and outline individual responsibilities.

Photo by Dylan Gillis from Unsplash.com

Step 2: Check governmental guidance

Adhere to applicable governmental guidelines. These can be found at the federal, state, county, city, and metro level, and vary by location. These guidelines change frequently and are expected to do so as the coronavirus pandemic continues.

Tip: Assign an internal resource to keep an updated database with governmental guidelines for re- opening. When you are ready to begin preparing your office to enter the workplace, schedule a meeting to review the most current updates.

Step 3: Supervisor training 

A top priority during this pandemic is making employees feel comfortable as we begin to re-enter the workplace. This situation creates different personal challenges for employees. Effectively returning to the workplace requires strong leadership, collaboration and engagement from everyone. Use your in-house Human Resources Team to provide guidance and training for supervisors to follow as they support employees during the transition back to the office.

Tip: Create a roadmap with reminders, checklists and helpful tips for supervisors to print and keep at their desks.

Step 4: Set up your health station

Consider re-tooling your office reception areas as health stations. This is where employees check in and out, complete health checks, learn about using the office safely, and receive supplies. The use of a health station is a necessary upgrade to ensure offices can maintain safety controls and contact tracing.

Tip: Especially during their first days back, re-entering the office can be stressful for some employees. Having a clear process can help them build up their own comfort and sense of confidence.

Step 5: Plan your space

To use the existing layouts and furniture, occupancy reductions, circulation paths and assigned seating can be modified to accommodate physical distancing recommendations.

  • Occupancy Reductions: Gather information about current office capacities and reduce occupancy based on guidelines. Create capacity graphs to allow a quick side-by-side view of the current office capacity, in comparison to updated reduced occupancy per local guidelines.
  • Identify Circulation: Establish the direction of foot traffic and identify two-way vs. one-way circulation, mark circulation in a clockwise direction where possible.
  • Assign Workstations: Apply a checkerboard pattern to workstations and coordinate with supervisors to implement a shiftwork pattern to ensure physical distancing while employees are seated at their stations.
  • Apply Signage: Create signage and decals to indicate one-way circulation path, standing points for physical distancing and desk decals to reflect shiftwork.

Tip: Engage a consultant with space planners or architects on staff to help adjust current layouts to fit these new guidelines.

Photo by Bethany Legg from Unsplash.com

Step 6: Clean your space

With what we know about this virus, cleanliness needs to be top of mind for organizations during this process. While most organizations have cleaning services in place, we all now have an individual responsibility for keeping the office and community amenities clean.

  • Determine what surfaces are cleaned and how often
  • Establish a list of necessary cleaning supplies to meet the required level of cleaning in each office.
  • Setup cleaning substations
  • Maintain a cleaning log that is updated daily
  • Declutter by evaluating what items can be moved or removed completely to reduce frequent handling or contact.
  • Establish shared appliance allowances for this first phase and how to properly sanitize after each use.

Tip: Maintain a cleaning log daily to ensure all cleaning requirements are met.

Step 7: Coordinate with landlord

Many offices are located within a multi-tenant commercial office building. These professional environments include shared elevators and stairwells, gyms and cafés, other tenants, and building systems – all of which employees encounter through the course of a normal working day. Landlords and their property management teams are critical partners in maintaining safe, clean workplaces.

Tip: Issue a questionnaire to gather key information about each landlord’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The questionnaire can cover topics such as: tenants and guests, people circulation, janitorial and maintenance, building systems, and emergency preparedness.

As plans commence for the return to normal, hopefully these processes will support others with business continuity and ensuring the safety of workers everywhere. General guidance abounds, but every office space is different. Get started by working through these steps to have solutions in place for your re-opening day.

CRB’s Re-Entry Task Force’s contributors: John Schwaller, Andi Feeley, Jay Marshall, Vince Corden, Steve Pianalto, Jesse Taborsky, Audra Augustin, Danielle David, Rebekah Hunter, Shoshana Marske, Pam Rezzelle, Patti St. Vincent, Marilou Wilson, Robert Brady, Karla Chiarelli, Jamie Nelson, Debra Reed, Tracy Stanfield, Viktoriya Lupareva, Lauren Candelora, Kelsey Monahan, Kevin Kuzma, Nicole Lane, Madi Olberding, Lindsay Kenney, David Keith, Chelsea Stramel 

Strategies

Visual design of product can hold symbolic meanings to consumers – study

Simplicity of the product package aligns with consumers’ default assumption that store brands invest less in product quality. Thus, the simplicity of store brand packaging likely signals a lack of investment in the product rather than few ingredients and product purity.

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Researchers from Texas Christian University, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and University of Georgia published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines the consumer trend towards minimalist packaging in consumable products.

The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Marketing, is titled “Symbolically Simple: How Simple Packaging Design Influences Willingness to Pay for Consumable Products” and is authored by Lan Anh N. Ton, Rosanna K. Smith, and Julio Sevilla.

Designing products is both an art and a science. Companies have found that bringing together many visual elements in product design—with multiple colors, text, and illustrations incorporated in the packaging—can lead to enhanced brand engagement. However, in the last few years, consumers have increasingly desired more minimalist aesthetics.

The new Journal of Marketing study examines this consumer trend toward minimalist packaging in consumable products. The research team theorizes that consumers tend to assume that the simplicity of the product package suggests that the product contains few ingredients, which in turn increases perceived product purity, defined as the belief that the essential ingredients of the product are undiluted. With customers increasingly seeking product purity, there is an increase in a willingness to pay for consumable products with simple packaging.

The study defines simple packaging design as the extent to which a product package contains few design elements, which lack detail, are similar to one another, and are arranged in regular ways. Complex packaging design refers to the extent to which a product package contains many design elements that are highly detailed, different from one another, and arranged in irregular ways.

The researchers examined over 1,000 consumable product packages from the largest supermarket chain in the U.S. and find that the simplicity of the packaging design is positively associated with price. As Ton explains, “in a series of experiments, we show that the visual design of a product can hold symbolic meanings to consumers. Specifically, although there is no information about the product’s composition on the package, we find that consumers assume that the simplicity of the product package signals that there are few ingredients within, which enhances perceived product purity.”

However, simple packaging does not always enhance consumers’ willingness to pay. Smith says, “we find that store-brand products are not likely to experience the same benefits of simple packaging as non-store brand products. This is likely because the simplicity of the product package aligns with consumers’ default assumption that store brands invest less in product quality. Thus, the simplicity of store brand packaging likely signals a lack of investment in the product rather than few ingredients and product purity.”

Sevilla adds that “we also find the preference for simple packaging depends on consumers’ goals. When consumers have a health goal, they are more likely to pay for a product with simple packaging. This is because simple packaging conveys that the product contains few ingredients and high product purity, attributes that tend to be associated with healthy products. By contrast, when consumers seek to indulge, they are less willing to pay for products with simple packaging. This is because complex packaging signals many ingredients and low product purity, attributes that tend to be associated with unhealthy and, by extension, tasty products.”

This research extends the understanding of consumer interest in minimalist aesthetics by showing conditions under which design simplicity can be less desirable. Visual simplicity often conveys the idea of “less is more,” but there are situations when it can simply signal “less is less.” It also broadens the understanding of the concept of purity in the context of consumer research. While explicit illustrations, such as a drawing of a mountain spring, can enhance consumer judgments of product purity, product purity can be inferred from more subtle visual cues (or even the lack of visual design elements). Relatedly, the study digs into the concept of product purity, which can hold a variety of meanings, and differentiates purity from its related construct of naturalness, which typically refers to products that are not man-made.

This research provides several insights for chief marketing officers:

  • Simplifying package design can be an effective way for brands to visually (and nonverbally) communicate key product information to consumers. Simple packaging can lead consumers to infer that the product has fewer ingredients and is purer—thereby enhancing their willingness to pay.
  • Aligning the visual design of the product package with ingredient information is essential to make a positive impact on consumers.
  • Managers may consider the specific brand when using simple packaging because positive inferences are less likely to occur for store-brand products.
  • When managers want to signal that their products are indulgent, opting for more complex designs could be more effective.

This work could be extended to durable goods such as technology products. For instance, Apple products are well-known for their simple packaging and are often seen as easier to use than their competitors. It may be fruitful to explore how inferences derived from simple packaging of technology products align or differ from those of consumable goods.

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Strategies

Pictograms sometimes have an additional benefit: Inducing optimism

If the same icons are grouped together in the pictogram, a consumer will feel more favorably and exhibit an optimism bias about their own chances.

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Sometimes, how the information is presented is as important as the information itself. Graphics, icons, and pictograms are increasingly popular methods of presenting information to consumers in direct, memorable, and easily understandable ways.

A team of researchers led by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s Gaurav Jain, Ph.D., assistant professor of marketing in the Lally School of Management, found that pictograms sometimes have an additional benefit: inducing optimism.

In research recently published, Jain and his colleagues found that frequency pictograms, which convey proportions and probabilities, induce optimism in consumers when they are presented in a sorted way. In other words, if the same icons are grouped together in the pictogram, a consumer will feel more favorably and exhibit an optimism bias about their own chances.

The findings contribute to the field of attribute framing, which refers to highlighting characteristics in a positive or negative light. For example, a consumer may be more inclined to purchase an item marked as $10 off of $30 rather than one marked as $20. Previous research has focused on textual rather than pictorial attribute framing. Since frequency pictograms are “the most common graphical representations of quantitative information,” Jain’s research has potentially wide applications.

“Sorted verses unsorted pictograms should be used strategically, depending on whether the messaging is promotional or prohibitive. If eight out of 10 dentists endorse a toothpaste, for example, a sorted pictogram would make consumers feel favorably about the toothpaste. However, when depicting that 8% of children alive today will die if current smoking trends continue, an unsorted pictogram would be appropriate,” Jain said.

“Dr. Jain’s research provides valuable insights for communicators,” said Chanaka Edirisinghe, Ph.D., acting dean of Rensselaer’s Lally School of Management. “It also opens the door to explore further possibilities. How does more than two categories represented in the pictogram affect the findings? What role does the number of icons, their size, or using multiple colors within one icon to show fractional proportions play? With this research, Dr. Jain adds to our understanding of people’s perceptions according to how information is presented.”

Jain was joined in research by Sunaina Shrivastava of Manhattan College and Zeynep Ece Tolun of Rensselaer.

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Strategies

5 Ways to support underappreciated professionals

You can show your appreciation for deserving workers such as your favorite school custodians or office maintenance staff members in numerous ways, including these suggestions.

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Unsung heroes make everyday living possible. They work behind the scenes and tackle some of the most demanding work imaginable, such as maintaining facilities and keeping them in tip-top condition.

You can show your appreciation for deserving workers such as your favorite school custodians or office maintenance staff members in numerous ways, including these suggestions from Rubbermaid Commercial Products, supporters of cleaning and maintenance professionals nationwide.

Write Thank You Notes

In today’s digital world, handwritten notes are a novelty. The times may be changing, but the impression a thoughtful handwritten message leaves behind hasn’t changed at all. Keep a supply of blank notecards so you can offer notes to those who make a difference in your life. The sentiments don’t need to be long; a simple expression of gratitude is enough to brighten someone’s day.

Participate in Appreciation Events

You might receive information from local schools or businesses about opportunities to support maintenance staff, such as hosting meals or helping with cleanup in classrooms or offices. Finding opportunities to support underappreciated custodial staff can allow community members to show thanks in meaningful ways.

For example, Rubbermaid Commercial Products is hosting a Behind the Scenes of Clean Campaign this fall to elevate, recognize and thank cleaning and facility maintenance professionals who are among the first to arrive for work each day. The campaign includes more than 40 events globally where community members can engage with and personally thank custodians who are making an everyday difference behind the scenes.

Recognize Milestones

Often, those in custodial roles blend into the fabric of everyday life. They’re rarely the focal point of celebrations, but often make it possible for others to honor special occasions. Make a point to know about the underappreciated professionals in your life, so you can recognize events like birthdays, work anniversaries and other dates that hold special personal meaning.

Do Your Part

Think about what small steps you can take to make unsung heroes’ jobs easier. That might mean picking up after yourself or cleaning up a mess in your workspace. It could involve wiping down your table after lunch. Little gestures can add up to a big difference.

Lead By Example

You don’t need to wait for others to join you in recognizing workers whose impacts are made behind the scenes. Speaking up and taking action can serve as a positive example for those around you. You can even take the lead and organize an effort to recognize individuals who rarely receive thanks, such as the custodian at your office or the janitorial team at your favorite retailer.

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