Hi. I work for a small engineering company 20 employees, so far we had limited the number of staff on site to a maximum of 7 but now as work ramps up we may need up to 15 people to come back. The workshop is very large with two seperate roller doors which are opened for ventilation so that does not pose a problem. The issue i am having is deciding capacity based on the office building.

The hallways are very narrow (3ft apprx.) so we have implemented a one way system which means people have to loop around from the outside, so no corss over inside. However we can only ensure ventiation in the hallway by keeping an external fire door open and keeping internal fire doors open to allow ventilation from windows across the internal hallway.

The other problem is that some rooms including the ladies toilet and the kitchen have no windows (toilet has exhaust recently cleaned).

We cannot have a dedicated cleaning person on site due to costs so the onus is on the staff to ensure they wipe surfaces after them and this hasnt worked very well most of the time hence the reduced number on site. 

(other measures taken include one way system throughout building and workshop, foot door openers, hygene stations at every zone, daily cleaning by professional company each evening, windows opened for ventilation, dedicated desks, all non essential staff working from home)

My question is what further measures, apart from these, can we take to increase staff capacity on site? The narrow hallways [ allowing ventilation only by openeing internal and external fire doors], toilets and rooms with no windows, and staff having to take responsability to clean up after themselves are making me nervous. 

Thanks

Hi Hopeful 

Thanks for your reply. I can confirm we have taken all the precautions you have mentioned already including mask wering within the office block (not workshop as its a large open space and also has external roller doors that are kept open). 

We have restricted numbers of people in the toilets to 1 (although 2 cubicles + 2 urinals inside) and 2 to the kitchen area. 

Whats your thoughts on keeping external and internal fire exits open to allow for ventilation within the hallways?

Thanks

And my personal view is that people aren't going to be lingering or congregating in hallways but just passing through so the risk in these areas is low anyway even if they are poorly ventilated.  So no justification for defeating the fire safety measures.