As we start to approach a post-COVID-19 world, business leaders are trying to get their operations and employees back to normal safely. ServiceNow has developed a suite of four apps to help businesses keep employees safe, healthy and productive during the transition to this "new normal." Two ServiceNow representatives spoke to us during Virtual30 to walk us through the ServiceNow Safe Workplace Apps.

Impact on the Workplace

The impact of COVID-19 has been astronomical for businesses. It will be impossible to go 100% back to the way things were. According to ServiceNow, before COVID-19, only 9% of America’s workforce actually worked from home. When COVID-19 hit, that escalated to 42% and as we prepare to go back into offices, only 55% of that 42% is expected to physically return to offices. 

• Traditional office and desktops will be a pre-COVID-19 artifact
• Employees will want to work where and how they want
• Increase in productivity expected
• Increased demand for organizational agility

Return to Workplace will Happen in Phases

Many businesses will adopt a phased approach to returning to work. Factors to consider for a return to work strategy include employee roles, office proximity and collaborations, work shifts and assigned resources.  The initial phase might only invite essential roles back to physical offices, then allow other employees to return on a voluntary basis. Collaboration will be minimal at first but then slowly increase. Assigned shifts and resources may be critical at first and then become more relaxed.   

The ServiceNow Safe Workplace Apps

ServiceNow developed a suite of apps to manage the return to workplace. The apps are broken into two categories: Workforce and Workplace. Businesses can choose to use one or all of the apps and the apps come with a central dashboard for easy management and in-depth analytics. 

The apps solve a critical problem for businesses who are trying to piece together different technologies or manual solutions, like spreadsheets, to manage the transition back to the office. The apps can manage many locations at once and the data can be broken into separate office locations, floors and even specific offices.

Make sure to watch the video above to catch an in-depth demonstration of the ServiceNow apps. Demo starts at 11:10. Below are a few examples of what the dashboard looks like.

Interactive map to monitor all locations in one view.

Drill down to one location for data from the health screening surveys, workspace resource reservations and inventory statuses.