It’s going to be a long road to recovery as businesses continue to grapple with conducting business under Level 3 Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.

Everything has been upended and business owners are now faced with having to make big changes as they set up environments for workers and customers that meet regulated safety requirements. Changes range from reconfiguring office spaces, to reducing contact through running shifts, and conducting daily health checks.

There are a number of business tools that can assist companies to reopen safely, and manage which employees and guests are coming into a business location, schedule worker breaks, and log procedures such as cleaning a space before a new group of people arrives.

Here are a number of tips from CRM company, Salesforce, which recently released its Work.com resource for businesses:

Convert office spaces – Open-plan offices do not offer adequate separation to meet new social distancing regulations. To prepare for this new reality, business owners have to consider returning work environments to cubicles or separate desks with plastic dividers to isolate germs.

With the requirement that employees will maintain social distance measures whenever possible, companies can schedule breaks to prevent the flow of people in offices – and in conference rooms, elevators and corridors – at the same time.

Stagger work shifts – One way reopened companies have made social distancing easier has been to create staggered shifts during the day, so fewer people are working or socialising in tandem. Others have opted to alternate teams to work on certain days of the week, making it far easier to conduct contact tracing and quarantine if necessary.  Some businesses are adopting a strategy of slowly opening offices around the country.

Regular health checks – As fever is one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19, temperature checks are a relatively simple way to make sure employees who have contracted the virus remain safe at home. As per the government’s latest guidance, businesses need to screen employees both off-site and on-site in a fast, simple way while keeping the process touchless.

Contact tracing – Business leaders need to trace health and relationship contacts in a safe and private manner, by collecting data from individuals who are infected. Contact tracking applications enable employers to collect data from individuals infected or exposed to the coronavirus, and generate visual maps of contacts and locations to monitor potential interactions and outbreak.

With so many elements to manage as businesses attempt to operate in such unusual times, putting employee and visitor health and safety first is a must. It seems unlikely that businesses will ever return to the status quo that existed before the pandemic hit.