INSIGHTS: Top Questions to Ask your Office Landlord

Many businesses are starting to think about their plan for returning employees to the office safely. One of the often-overlooked aspects of this is the collaboration with a building manager, property manager or landlord.

If your business is like Bergmann, chances are you rent your office space versus owning directly. While we created our overall Bergmann Company Office Guidelines, we also appointed Office Points of Contact across our 15 locations to spearhead the office-specific return plans. Each space is different and requires custom considerations for traffic circulation, spacing and various operational logistics.

As our Office Points of Contact interacted with building managers / landlords, we compiled a list of helpful questions they have asked in their planning:

What plans for traffic flow and sanitation have been made for shared points of entry? How will these points be monitored?
What adjustments are being made to the building and office cleaning schedules, including shared bathrooms and common areas? Have arrangements been made for more in-depth and/or more frequent cleaning?
What steps have been implemented to evaluate engineering controls, where system adjustments may help with employee protections? For instance, installation of air filters with an increased rating, adequate mixing of air supply and increased exhaust rates.
Will there be any changes to the building visitation policy? How will mail and deliveries be handled?
What will management require related to social distancing, required use of face coverings and other issued requirements or guidance?
Have formal guidelines or policies been provided to tenants that must be adhered to?
What is the plan should there be a positive case of COVID-19 in the building?

In his role as Environmental Health & Safety Manager, Jim has been integral to Bergmann’s planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with preparing corporate, client- and project-specific health & safety plans for our work groups, Jim has assisted points of contact across our 15 offices with preparing their individual spaces for employee return.