Paper Documents and Shared Desktops
Are They a Detriment to Social Distancing in the Post-COVID Era?

When coming back to work after several months of the shutdown, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s difficult to know what to expect. Facilities professionals are likely to have their hands full.

Among the many challenges they face are rearranging the workplace and setting up facilities for the required social distancing standards that are evolving as we speak. This includes health and safety signage, as well as visual directives to influence behavior in the workplace. Communicating the necessity for social distancing is not likely to be effective in an email.

Meanwhile, the maintenance and upkeep challenges of facilities management haven’t gone away. Work orders and tickets have likely been piling up while you’ve been offsite. Moreover, it is likely you now have less staff and more work to do – and that means everyone rushing to the document storage room or using shared desktops to access facilities information.

So, here’s a question for you: Do you know of any plan room or document storage room which facilitates social distancing?

The Problem of Data Rooms and Social Distancing 

These storage rooms are often cramped and tight spaces almost by design. It has been like that forever. And even where documents are in digital format, there’s often just one computer for everyone to share. Environments like this are a huge detriment to social distancing.

In order to reduce exposure and contact, you might be forced to reduce the staff present during working hours, while restricting or limiting access to the document storage room. Depending on local regulations or new safety procedures, this could easily become a requirement that would put an additional drag on an already slow process of accessing information.

It does not have to be that way.

The Solution is Going Mobile

With a true mobile-first application to access facilities information, your facilities staff could have access to all the critical building information they need, on their own mobile devices.

This would allow facilities managers to significantly reduce exposure and contact between staff members during working hours while increasing efficiency.

Accessing Facilities Information through a mobile app on your personal device can literally be a life saver in times like this!