As the companies are getting back on their work post covid19, getting businesses up with enhanced efficiency and running smoothly again will be a challenging task. Since the workplace we go back to will never be the same post-Covid19, employers need to carefully devise their reintroduction strategies to offer a safe & sustainable restart.
To assist you in preparing a post lockdown strategy for resuming normal operations within the organization, we at Kaapro Management Solutions Pvt. Ltd. have jotted down the following steps to help you eventually get back to standard working practice.
1.Risk Assessment
- To deal effectively with the new-normal of Covid19, employers will have to undertake ‘Risk Assessment’ exercise by identifying how workers might be exposed to COVID19 during their work and work out the ways to mitigate the risks. These risk assessments should be working documents, regularly reviewed and updated in line with government advice. We would recommend keeping an archive of all risk assessment versions, so that it is easy to look back and show why certain decisions were taken at a precise point.
Employers must take steps to address the risks for clinically vulnerable members of staff, with underlying health conditions which make them additionally vulnerable with Covid19 (e.g. asthmatic employees) and pregnant staff member. Such individuals are advised to shield themselves until June, 2020. Hence, the employers must respect this in the light of the fact that it is integral to an individual’s health & safety and allow such employees to work from home.
2. Steps Before reopening :
A. Create Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to ensure preventive measures are executed in a systematic way. Follow guidelines from the Central Government, State Government & WHO while framing SOPs.
- Prepare an action plan for the event of any person/s feeling unwell at the workplace.
- Have a rapid exit plan and also be prepared for the potential shut-down scenario, if an employee tests positive at one of the work locations.
- Take time to consult your employees and understand their concerns in returning to the workplace.
- Resume operations in a phased manner, so as to manage flow of people and avoid congregation.
- Before a day of opening, get an email confirmation from employees on health and travel history
B. The first and foremost thing that an employer must do is to make the workplace work-ready by getting pest control and fumigation of the entire premises done before a day of reopening. For sanitizing the working locations, instruct the cleaners to use alcohol-based disinfectants, which are proven against many germs and viruses, including the COVID-19.
3. Work Place related changes:
- Place hand sanitizers and tissues at entry/exit points and all the common areas around the workplace. Together with that also ensure that these things are refilled or replaced from time to time.
- Take temperature checks upon entry into the office.
- Revising seating plans to maintain social distancing at office. (i.e. rearranging your workplaces so that there’s at least one meter of space between each employee)
- Staggered canteen timings and limiting the time spent in conference rooms.
- Last but not the least; the time is ripe to invest in advanced cleaning services, if you haven’t already done so.
4. Well-being of the employees:
With the added uncertainty & stress that the lockdown has imposed upon, developing and nurturing a supportive workplace culture of open communication and positive staff morale has become even more important now. So support the well-being of your employees by taking the following steps-
- Encourage all your staff members to wear a face mask and practice proper etiquette while they cough or sneeze.
- Consider arranging some transportation medium for your employees (both to/from work and during the working day, where applicable) to mitigate the risk for them coming in contact with the virus.
- Instruct your employees to maintain social distancing in travel to and from the workplace and during interaction with suppliers and those in distribution chain.
- Follow appropriate government guidance on PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), as released and updated from time to time. There may be individuals for whom providing PPE is more advisable; such as customer-facing receptionists or any workers involved in providing personal care. However, it is unlikely to be necessary for all the staff members to wear PPE, provided that businesses and organizations are following social distancing rules.
- Carry out audit procedures to monitor and ensure safe practices (as per the SOPs and Government Guidelines) are implemented.
- Use technology to enhance the working-from-home experience of the employees who your organization thinks can continue remote working.
- Approach and seek support from the experienced physicians; pulmonologists and psychologists to provide on-call guidance, in-case your staff members would want to reach out.
- To ensure that your employees feel psychologically safe while at work, you can facilitate them with access to mental health experts.
- Continue with the online collaborations with your clients and suppliers and curb all the business-related travels for everyone in the organization if possible, for everyone’s safety in the organization.
By taking these measures, the organizations will be able to build confidence in their employees that their employer is taking their health seriously.
So here’s how you can restart your company’s operations post lockdown, to make you employees feel comfortable returning. We would also welcome you to add suggestions to it, if you have some additional concerns that should be addressed by the organizations, in the comments section below.
