Promoting a safer workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic:
With a persistent, complex, and evolving crisis such as COVID-19, having the right leadership and informed decision-making in place is critical to the health security of your staff, guests and clients. One constant over the past several months has been inconsistency in how many businesses and organizations have responded to this global event. Constantly evolving governmental recommendations and regulations, the politicization of public health interventions, and confusion about the epidemiology of COVID-19 have all made it difficult for businesses and organizations—large and small—to determine how they want to respond to and recover from the pandemic. Developing and updating a pandemic response and recovery plan is an important first step towards finding stability in these stormy waters.
Detecting possible infection in workers and visitors is quickly becoming the responsibility of businesses:
Screening for potential COVID-19 infected or exposed persons provides an important layer of protection, especially if it can be accomplished prior to individuals arriving at a location. Supporting employees and guests feeling safe to enter indoors or to stay home when symptomatic can be achieved through protocols including routinely surveying your staff and guests. Several states have begun legislation on the business’s responsibility in this regard. In some states there is a movement to allow for infected employees to receive compensation benefits, classifying COVID-19 as an “occupational disease” and a “compensable personal injury.” In these cases, consistent policies and procedures are key to maintaining trust, compliance and good health.
How do you properly engineer the worksite to make it safe?
There’s a tremendous amount we can do with readily available resources. There are a number of solutions for personal protection, site sanitization, and purposeful engineering of the workspace. This may include optimizing airflow, managing the flow of pedestrian movement, and shift scheduling logistics to manage occupancy among other options. The goal is to maintain a viable workforce while preventing the spread from debilitating a business.
How do you manage an infected person who has been at your work site?
Ultimately, despite best efforts, some employees and guests with COVID-19 will likely end up inside your work site. Having a response and recovery plan in place for this eventuality will help mitigate the consequences. Your playbook should evolve based on current data and best practices utilized in workplace safety planning. Communicating intentions clearly to your team will go a long way to reestablish confidence and reduce the likelihood of a larger problem at your facility.
At BlueCoat, we’re currently supporting small and mid-market companies with a layered strategy to keep work sites as safe as reasonably achievable and help them get back to business. For more information on what we can do to support you during COVID-19, contact us at info@trustbluecoat.com.