Electronic security: virus-proofing the new office

By John Gellel, General Manager, Kastle Systems

To protect employees and reduce liability for virus outbreaks at work, organisations across Australia are racing to figure out how to safely reopen workplaces.

Employees are nervous about returning to work and rightfully so, as they’re worried about a virus that has no vaccine and can stay on surfaces for more than 24 hours.

In comparison to other countries, Australia has managed the COVID-19 spread significantly better than others – according to a report by The Economist Intelligence Unit, which assessed the quality of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries’ responses to COVID-19, including quantity of tests, death rates, international arrivals and other factors. Australia was among the highest scored, alongside Austria, New Zealand, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Israel and Norway.

Despite Australia’s success to date, according to health and political officials, we must not become complacent. The virus still exists, it can still spread rapidly, and the dynamics of our country can change overnight. The most recent example of this is by the Victorian Government, which placed Greater Melbourne and the Mitchell Shire into a six-week lockdown, as well as the New South Wales and Queensland governments, who closed their borders to Victoria – both actions were taken to contain a virus that spreads exponentially.

Even when a vaccine is ready, who can say if Australia will receive the first, second, or third batch of vaccines before hundreds of other countries?

In the short term, governments can stimulate the economy through business and individual handouts; however, our economy cannot sustain this forever. Companies need to be back in business and people need to be back at work.

How can we get people back to their workplaces now? What technologies are available during this pandemic?

Videoconferences at home have supported our short-term needs. It’s a way for most workplaces to keep businesses moving, but it is a bandaid fix and working from home on an ongoing basis has its drawbacks. Those that are videoconference regulars will know that our beloved NBN isn’t always perfect. Even if an employee has high-speed NBN, that doesn’t mean others on the same calls do. Network instability and time lag is one common drawback to videoconferencing. Outside of technical reasons, videoconference removes personal contact (remember, a large part of communication is from non-verbal actions), which then reduces workplace collaboration.

Getting people back to the workplace requires a collaborative discussion with employers and employees. While most will generally understand that working from home cannot be forever, employees want their workplace to be a safe place. In a recent survey on the view of employees’ safe return to work, many employees said that they won’t return to work if things were not addressed, including:

• Employers ensuring that there is a process to deny entry to infected or symptomatic individuals
• Ensuring enough hand sanitisers are on site
• Ability to check an employee or visitor’s temperature upon request
• Minimising the need to touch surfaces, from outside of the building to desks

To get employees back in the workplace where an employee feels reasonably safe, employers are looking at ways to update their offices with a range of new technology and processes. Tenants and building managers are also actively discussing what technologies and processes a post-COVID-19 building should have.

Proactive building owners are implementing these new technologies and processes, not only to keep tenancies safe, but also as a way to market their building to prospective new tenants.

So, what will the office start to look like?

BEFORE LEAVING HOME
One of the biggest challenges in getting people back to their workplace is the risk of COVID-19 spreading throughout their building. To minimise this risk, employees and visitors will be asked to agree or disagree with a series of questions relating to their health, confirming that they do not have any COVID-19 symptoms. If the employee or visitor disagrees with the questionnaire, their access will be locked for the day, keeping them out of the workplace and minimising any potential virus spread.

THE BUILDING LOBBY
As workers return to the office, the lobby may resemble an airport security checkpoint. Those that confirmed in advance that they do not have any symptoms will be given fast-lane access through security. As they pass through security, a thermal image camera will detect body temperature and deny further access if the camera detects an elevated body temperature. Visitors will check in to the building via their phone. Once checked in, they’ll also move through the security checkpoint and thermal camera, then be given access to the tenancy floor.

“As workers return to the office, the lobby may resemble an airport security checkpoint”

THE ELEVATORS
As COVID-19 particles can remain on surfaces for hours or days – calling an elevator and selecting your floor will all be done via an app. The quantity of people in each lift car will also be restricted to manage social distancing. When you’re ready to leave the office, you will call the lift and select ‘ground’, all via your app, instead of physical buttons in the lift lobby and lift car. This allows for a touchless lift experience.

THE TENANCY
Once on the tenancy floor, a touch of your phone’s app will open the motorised door in the lift lobby to your tenancy. You may go through several other doors – all of them will be motorised and touchless. The touchless experience will continue through other services, such as lockers and bathrooms.

Social distancing will be managed through floor markings, and CCTV cameras will alert security if you’re in close proximity for more than a certain period of time. People-counting through access control will ensure that the limit in the tenancy is not reached, based on the relevant square-metre rule. Once reached, employees and visitors will be denied access into the tenancy until someone leaves. This ensures compliance with mandatory health rules.

Every employee working from 9 am–5 pm will be a thing of the past. Instead, to support social distancing, the office environment will be spread over multiple shifts throughout the day, with early starters and the second shift finishing later. Multiple shifts will be managed through the organisation’s access control, preventing building and office access outside of the employees shift.

At the time when an employee or visitor becomes COVID-19-positive, additional access control points and CCTV cameras will support the need for immediate contact tracing. Through technology, authorised staff will quickly assess when and where the employee (or visitor) was inside the building, and who was in close proximity to the infected person.

While it may be difficult to see the end of this crisis today, all these technologies are available now, and tenancy managers at all levels are discussing office and building upgrades with building owners for a safer return to work during these extraordinarily challenging times.