CASE STUDY PORTICO
UNITED FRONT
As workplaces reopen, front of house teams will play a huge role in guiding building users through
adaptation to the ‘new normal’. Amanda Baber, Director of Business Development at Portico, addresses
how this can be done in a way that reassures building users without overstretching FoH professionals
The past year has been a dramatic
learning curve. The resilience of
every enterprise has been tested by the
unexpected. While the rolling out of a
COVID vaccine is promising an end to the
pandemic, there are still more hurdles
to overcome and we will not return to
the way things were. There are many
elements of the built environment that
have changed over the past months. For
some, it has been almost a year since they
set foot in the workplace so readjusting
will be a challenge.
Polls suggest that many employees
would prefer to remain working remotely
at least one or two days each week a‡ er the
pandemic. However, working from home
full-time has been far from ideal. It has had
24 APRIL 2021
some dramatic impacts on the mental health
of the workforce over the course of the year.
Many employees are keen to return to the
workplace as soon as possible.
Foremost when reopening workplaces
will be the health and safety of building
users. Many of the precautions put in
place over the course of the pandemic will
become permanent fixtures – or at least
stay for some time to come – as there will
be a move to return to the oŠ ice before a
complete roll-out of the vaccine. The return
to work will require a slow adjustment with
measures in place to prevent an outbreak.
Temperature checks, social distancing and
regular cleaning throughout the day will be
ubiquitous. Many building managers are
also implementing further measures such as
one-way systems throughout the building. In
the majority of cases, it has been impossible
for organisations to trial these precautions
with their buildings at full capacity. As such,
we can expect to see much shi‡ ing and
experimentation in building use over the
coming months as the workforce returns.
Buildings users will have to adapt, finding
their feet in a still unpredictable environment.
This adds pressure to the already challenging
process of returning to an altered workplace,
potentially having lost colleagues, and
managing their own anxieties about the virus.
NEW SKILLS IN FRONT OF HOUSE
Front of house (FoH) team members will be
at the centre of streamlining this process and
oŠ ering reassurance to building users. They