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The growing number of infections is causing employers to change their hours: some are introducing mandatory masks or sending more employees to work from home. Nobody just wants to wait for new instructions from the federal government.
Masks are increasingly coming to the office.
The number of corona cases is increasing dramatically every day. This also prompts many major employers to tighten the crown house rules again. Many choose a less drastic approach than in the “soft lockdown” in March, when they sent their entire workforce to the home office overnight. Instead, the maximum occupancy of offices and locations is reduced or a mask requirement is introduced depending on the situation.
Companies are generally reacting more independently than in March: everyone wants to comply with the official guidelines, but nobody expects it. Because the return to more home offices is gradual and more appropriate to the situation, and because everyone has now gained experience with it, companies do not expect any problems with the transition. In large banks, for example, most staff already work at the head office, so there is no need for an “exodus” from the offices.
One source of infection among many
It is not entirely clear how much everyday life in the office contributes to the spread of the coronavirus. The Federal Office of Public Health submitted an assessment of 793 Covid 19 cases in early August, according to which 8.7% of them were infected at work. The effective proportion could be higher, since in 319 cases no route of infection was determined. The Robert Koch Institute examined a good 55,000 cases in Germany and concluded that most people get infected in their private lives and that offices tend to play a minor role.
However, it is indisputable that closed rooms in which several people stay at the same time, close to each other and for a long period of time, carry a high risk of infection. This environment prevails in offices when most employees do not work from home. That is why the crown federal task force is asking people to return to central office.
A colorful bouquet of measurements
It’s notable that protective masks play a bigger role in companies’ Covid-19 concepts than they did in the spring – the Zurich Switzerland insurance company will introduce a blanket mask requirement at all locations over the next week. Most of the 6,100 Swiss employees are already working at home and no more than a quarter of the capacity can be used in offices.
At Helvetia insurance, a mask is required in the dining room from Monday, but only in the other rooms if the minimum distance cannot be maintained. Business trips abroad, to the extent that they are still carried out, will stop and in Germany should be avoided if possible. Now a maximum of half of the offices can be occupied, the employees of the risk groups must stay at home.
In Zurich, Switzerland, and at larger UBS locations, the temperature of employees and visitors has already been measured at the building entrance, so no data is recorded or stored. Employees appreciate the company taking care of their health, both employers say. But opinions differ on this measure: in Mobiliar and Helvetia, for example, fever measurement at the reception is not a problem.
Ensure contact tracing
In addition to banks and insurance companies, auditing and consulting firms have a particularly large number of office workplaces. Currently, 40% of the 1,450 people at KPMG’s Zurich location are working, although the trend has been declining since last week. When employees enter the building, they must wear a mask. This also applies to elevators and stairs, ie where a distance of 1 meter 50 is not guaranteed. Meeting rooms and other rooms are provided with information indicating the maximum number of people allowed in the room. The company will provide masks free of charge upon request.
All KPMG employees also log into a website every day. There you record whether you are with the client, in the office, and here exactly where you work, or in the home office. This makes contact tracing easier in case of infection.
At competitor PwC, around a third of the 3,250 employees in Switzerland currently work in offices. As in the first wave, PwC employees must first reserve a workstation in the system. At the Geneva and Lausanne offices, as well as for internal and external events and training courses, a mask will also be applied starting next week. From Thursday, protection must be used in the staff restaurant in Zurich until people sit down and keep the minimum distance.
Room ventilation is optimized
Switzerland’s largest energy company Axpo decided on Friday to introduce a general requirement to wear a mask in offices. Approximately 4,300 of Axpo’s 5,000 or more employees work in Switzerland. Starting Monday, the masks will be available to employees at the entrance of the building. The warehouse had been increased accordingly. Employees are expected not to wear masks for private purposes. If desired, the mask can be changed several times a day.
Proper office air quality is also an important issue. The room ventilation would now be running more frequently, Axpo said. Air conditioning systems are turned on earlier in the morning and left on longer at night. They will also be in operation during the weekend.
The recommendation continues to apply throughout the Axpo Group to work from home whenever possible. However, physical presence in offices and meetings is allowed if there is no other way for “important reasons”. Until the summer holidays, the Axpo CKW subsidiary had a home office requirement for those employees who can work from home. After the summer break, more employees returned to the offices, it is said. However, this trend is expected to change again due to the need to wear a mask.
Forever home office
For the service technicians at elevator and escalator manufacturer Schindler, the home office, of course, is not an option. They have to do their work on-site at the customer’s premises. Therefore, they have been equipped with masks and protective clothing for some time. The pandemic experience in China earlier in the year gave Schindler a head start on how best to reduce the risk of infection. However, at Schindler’s headquarters in Ebikon (LU), it is still not mandatory to wear a mask in the office. There have been no adjustments or tightening of the instructions in recent weeks, and none are planned.
Rather, Schindler follows a generous strategy when it comes to the home office. Anyone who is willing and able to work from home is always allowed. The media spokeswoman works from her apartment in Zurich and only sporadically visits her office at the Lucerne headquarters. The daily virtual team call replaced the coffee break shared with colleagues, he says.
