Full Return to the Office
Planning for the health and safety of your team as you return to your physical workspace.
As organizations continue to adjust their work models to meet the needs of their employees, they’ve begun to ask the same question: “when can we get back to normal?” However, many are realizing that their sense of “normal” will likely never return just as it was as organizations face new and emerging challenges related to health, safety, and productivity.. While employees are eager to return to the office, they’re also nervous about their health and safety.
A study conducted by Envoy surveyed 1000 full and part-time employees in the US; the results showed that 73% of respondents were worried about returning to the office. Companies are taking these concerns seriously, and for good reason: the study also found that over half of people would consider leaving their job if their employer didn’t prioritize their safety. Getting the best work from your people now requires additional focus to ensure the health and safety of all those present in the office.
73%
Percent of workers are concerned about returning to the office
For those surveyed, the top three concerns about the physical workspace were concern over others coming to work sick, an overcrowded workspace, and proper ventilation. While Zoom has traditionally been focused on virtual collaboration, we’re rapidly expanding our product portfolio to help businesses like yours tackle these challenges and get back to work safely.
Top Concerns About the Physical Workspace
- Not knowing if someone sick comes into the workspace
- Too many people in the workspace at once
- Lack of proper ventilation
Returning to the Office Checklist
Ensuring the health and safety of your employees while they’re in the office is more important than ever before and you need the right tools to help you manage resources and minimize contact wherever possible. Zoom makes this easy with our video-first unified communications platform. With some exciting new features, and others you’ve known and loved for years, Zoom can get your team back in the office quickly and safely.
Health & Safety
- Virtual Receptionist (For contactless visits)
- E911 Platform (For emergency response)
- Environmental Data (To monitor conditions)
Resource Management
- In-Room People Counting (For policy monitoring)
- Workspace Reservation (For resource sharing)
- Digital Signage (For important updates)
- Room Schedulers (For easy room booking)
Hands-Free Communication
- Companion Mode (For mobile room control)
- Wireless Pairing (With dedicated devices)
- Voice Control (In conference rooms)
Virtual Receptionist
Welcome guests safely and allow your front desk staff to work from anywhere with Zoom’s Kiosk Mode. Office visitors can tap to instantly be connected with your front desk staff over Zoom.
Once engaged, your front desk staff can greet and assist office visitors from anywhere, safely delivering a great first impression to every office visitor.
Digital Signage and Workspace Reservation
With more employees looking to split their workweek between home and the office, Workspace Reservation with Zoom Rooms Scheduling Displays can help employees reserve their spaces in advance and provide visibility of available resources. Use Digital Signage to show resource availability (e.g. SpaceIQ) or information such as the cleaning schedule of onsite assets.
Voice Commands for Zoom Rooms
Available on iOS today, and coming soon to all platforms, you can start a meeting in a Zoom Room with voice commands. Upon entering a meeting room, attendees can start a meeting without the need to touch communal Zoom Rooms controllers.
Alexa for Businesses is also available now on Zoom Rooms Appliances, providing additional abilities, like “Alexa, find me an available meeting room.”
E911 Digital Signage Integration
With fewer coworkers in the office to help in times of need, marshaling the right resources is more challenging than ever. Zoom Phone Nomadic E911 (U.S. and Canada) provides the ability to dynamically track the location of users as they move around your campus to ensure their location is up to date in the event of an emergency. When an emergency number is dialed, Zoom will notify your internal safety team and use digital signage to direct first responders.
In-Room People Counting
We’re enhancing Scheduling Displays to show in-room people counting to help attendees keep to social distancing requirements. The Zoom Rooms camera will constantly monitor people in a room, displaying the count on the rooms scheduling display. Rooms will also report on room occupancy over time in the Zoom Rooms dashboard, making it easier to track and enforce any occupancy policies or limits.
Zoom Rooms Scheduling Displays
Zoom Rooms customers can deploy an unlimited number of scheduling displays that can make it easy to book meeting spaces. Integrated directly in your organization’s calendar application, scheduling displays show real-time booking information and availability throughout the office. They can be used for large conference rooms, huddle rooms, and even desks or other shared resources.
Companion Mode for Zoom Rooms
In-room meeting attendees can now pair their personal devices to the Zoom Room with the Zoom Room Controller mobile application. Once paired, an attendee can manage the room controls from their own device. No need to touch communal controllers to start or control meeting rooms, everything can now be controlled from the attendee’s own device.
Digital Signage and Space Utilization
Zoom Rooms customers can deploy an unlimited number of digital signage to display important information and announcements throughout the office. Leveraging secure, cloud-based occupancy dashboards from organizations like Density.io, Zoom Rooms Admins can display building capacity limits and human occupancy alerts throughout your office space.
Enhanced Dashboard Reporting
The Zoom Rooms dashboard can now help monitor and report on room occupancy, giving you a clearer picture of how resources are being utilized and if employees are following policies. Supported hardware such as Neat devices can also monitor things like air quality to ensure a safe and healthy environment.
Buttonless Bluetooth Phones and Softphone
Zoom Phone makes it easy to pair desk phones to specific users in flexible work environments and new Bluetooth-enabled, buttonless models allow for easy cleaning and minimal hands-on usage.
Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery
When your workforce is split between home and the office, meeting with a conference room full of people can be overwhelming and impersonal when you’re working from home. With Zoom Rooms Smart Gallery, Zoom will automatically sense the participants in the room, and create a separate camera feed for each participant, making the meeting feel more like the Zoom Meetings you know and love.