With the Omicron variant surging all over the world, researchers are expecting that it will turn the COVID-19 pandemic to endemic. Reduced hospitalization and symptoms similar to the common cold are hinting that COVID-19 has passed its severe stage. But endemic does not mean that COVID-19 will go away. COVID-19 will still be there but considered similar to flu, cold, and other seasonal infections. So, it means the glamor of the office workspace will come back to normal very soon. However, there will be some precautionary measures every office has to ensure in order to avoid the spread of COVID-19 within their premises. Therefore, this blog discusses some of the key technologies that will drive office setup post-pandemic.

1. 1.      Contactless Technologies

Contactless technologies should be one of the very first investments companies have to do in their offices. Movement-activated doors, voice or app-enabled lifts, facial recognition, apps to order supplies, and similar others are the best contactless techs to reduce disease transmission. In short, the goal should be to make employees barely touch building with their hands.

1. 2.      Air Cleaners

Within an office, most of the air that circulates is the indoor air. Since COVID-19 is mostly transmitted by air, air cleaners and HVAC filters are going to be must-have products in the office post-pandemic. In fact, some companies are already going one step ahead with it by deploying UV light purification technology.

1. 3.      Sensors to Enforce Social Distancing

While social distancing will be a new norm in the office space, social distancing sensors will help employees to practice social distancing throughout the day. For example, Sentech has developed SDS tags that use ultra-wideband (UWB) technology to measure distances and then give signals with the vibration, sound, and light when an employee is within 1.5 meters to another employee's tag.

1. 4.      UV Light Sanitizers

UV Light Sanitizers offer UV-C light disinfection that eradicates harmful bacteria and viruses like COVID-19 without letting employees manually sanitize office equipment. Since there are often many high-touch surfaces and shared devices within office premises, the regular use of UV light sanitizers will play a key role in reducing the COVID-19 exposure within the office.

1. 5.      App-Driven Daily Health Screening

Until the COVID-19 becomes even less severe from its present form, health screening of employees will be essential to identify symptoms beforehand. This could be easily done by letting employees complete a daily health screening survey through a dedicated app before coming to the office. Alternatively, companies can even set up thermal sensors at the office entrance that can automatically detect employees' body temperature and trigger an alarm if it identifies any abnormalities.

1. 6.      AR Headsets

COVID-19 pandemic has made the business community take full advantage of remote working. Even post-pandemic, we will still witness some level of remote working. However, the meetings will soon shift from 2D video calls to 3D augmented reality meetings, thanks to the extensive research and development around VR/AR headsets. Bill Gates predicts that most Zoom meetings will shift to 3D avatar-based virtual meetings within 2-3 years. The pandemic has urged the need for new ways of interaction, which implies that AR headsets-oriented virtual meetings are going to become a new norm in just a few years from now.

1. 7.      Rapid Antigen Testing Kits

Just like every office has a first-aid kit, rapid antigen testing kits will also become a regular supply in offices. An antigen test is easy to conduct and just takes 15 minutes to provide results. Although antigen tests are less accurate compared to PCR tests, still they are highly useful for employees to quickly check if they have COVID once they identify COVID-related symptoms.

Wrapping Up

Although it is not clear how long COVID-19 will hold the "pandemic" status, the world has already started to live with it. Therefore, 2022 and the upcoming years will gradually bring back the glamor of office workspaces. However, the next challenge for companies would be to keep their office premises COVID-free. The above-listed technologies are some of the common ones we will see in most offices, but there will be a lot more as the office space starts healing itself.

Reach out to CARE Team to get a quote to setup your future post Covid office !