Jarrett Bauer says if and when his 140 employees return to work, the pre-COVID office they left is not going to be the same office they return to.

“There’s going to be a lot of policies put in place like temperature checks, shift works, and the other part is which departments need to come in and which key players,” Bauer said.

Bauer’s Health Recovery Solutions is one of 100 tenants that property manager Gregory Dell’Aquila oversees. He’s preparing for more employees to return to the building.

“Whether it’s Plexiglas, or maybe spacing employees out more which means shift changes, taking a temperature using an infared thermometer, those are things we are going to have available for guests who arrive at the building. But we’re also going to encourage tenants to have those devices for their own employees,” he said.

He says COVID-19 could force everyone to rethink how the workspace is used and shared.

“It’s not one size fits all, right? So benching-style workspaces where it’s essentially like a picnic-style work environment, you may need to have more shifts and have separation between those open floor plans,” Dell’Aquila said.

Dell ’Aquila says adjustments to office space and signage are just some of the more obvious changes people will see. Less noticeable changes will include frequent cleaning and an air purification system.

“I know for us, we have installed for our office building, common areas and tenant spaces air scrubbers that have a UV light that actually will clean the air. Inside our restrooms we have certain sinks turned off so that you can’t get too close to a person. We’ve added extra staff. We do extra cleaning of all touch points in the building,” he said.

Robert Rivadeneira is the president and owner of York Building Services, a full-service commercial cleaning company. He says offices will need more routine and deep cleaning than usual, especially larger buildings.

“The frequency of cleaning is going to be the key to getting us out of all this,” he said. “Electrostatic spraying, deep cleaning, can be anywhere from four to six hours. Ultimately deep cleanings will continue, whether it’s once a month, it all depends on how the reopening goes.”

Rivadeneira says even as his company focuses on offices reopening, his biggest clients are still schools. And he knows there’s now extra pressure to clean all buildings properly and keep workers and students safe.