As much as many of us enjoy working from home, it comes at a huge cost to our productivity. Some of us are anxious to return to the office, others are not. But making sure we can return safely will make or break the way we return to work. Many sources (surprisingly and unsurprisingly) are now pointing to an increasing desire for employees to return to the office, even if it is a partial return.

This desire for a balance between remote work and returning to the office still hints to employers that the office is not just a space to work in, but an environment that inspires and engages employees and teams to produce their best work.

Digital Signage Has Already Helped Us Reopen

Digital Signage has already played a big role during pandemic to help people navigate and distance responsibly.

In London, the UK government launched a campaign to educate the public on hygiene and distancing measures to ensure citizens are helping to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The Restaurant/Bar Apteekkari in Finland became the first in it’s industry allowed to reopen safely.  Using a combination of digital signage and a camera solution they were able to monitor capacity, and social distancing up to government standards. The combination of the Phillips Professional Displays and the Bosch cameras constantly calculated the number of people entering and exiting their rooftop terrace in real-time.

Overall, the response from the restaurant guests and staff were very positive. This intelligent combination played a vital role for them to help continue operations during the pandemic, making it a “worthwhile investment”.

Applying Digital Signage to The Workplace

Although traditionally serving the retail industry, smart signage has a wide range of uses for the office space.

Applying the classic concept of broad communications to the office can help to clearly display distancing and hygiene measures to any individual stepping foot into an office space or a corporate setting. Using smart signage that can automatically count employees as they enter, and maybe even create a capacity cap can greatly help manage distancing and safety for employees as they slowly phase back to work.

The best part of digital signage is the ability to manage the content and update any software remotely.

Another great feature is the ability to scale digital signage. Larger organizations managing the return/partial return to work can easily control the content across multiple locations, and even manage different languages.

Selecting the Right Digital Signage Solution

With incredible solutions in the marketplace, and a variety of shapes and sizes, configuring the right Digital Signage solution and plan could be overwhelming.

The first step is defining the ultimate purpose for installing displays, and signage. Are you just trying to communicate to employees in real time? Ask them to wash their hands? Or are you trying to continuously track foot-traffic in the corporate space ensuring that people are not crowding, or stuffing into small conference rooms? This may answer whether smart cameras and other pieces of technology would be beneficial.

The second step is deciding the right placement. Placement takes into consideration the size of the space, the viewing angles, the size of the displays. All these considerations must be made to design the right solution for the space.

We expect digital signage to slowly become commonplace. Make sure your organization is considering smart technology to safely phase back employees.