In order to provide a safe working environment during this pandemic, you should be doing more as a business to make it so. There is plenty you can be doing to help make your workplace a safer place, whether you have all of your staff back currently or not. It’s an odd time that we’re living in, but there is plenty that you can do in order to keep business running as usual, even if it might not be quite back to normal. Here are some tips for providing a safe work environment during COVID-19.
Increase Cleaning Hours to Cover Cleaning Duties
Cleaning is very important, and the more you can maintain the workplace cleanliness, the better. If you’ve still got staff coming in and out of the building, then you need to ensure that they are taking their own responsibility of cleaning their hands, wearing masks, and using the building in a safe manner. It’s also essential that you, as an employer, are doing everything possible to keep the workplace clean at all times.
Current cleaning duties might not be substantial enough, and so it might be worth increasing cleaning hours to make up for that. It could be that you need to hire an extra few people or you simply reduce cleaners but increase the number of hours they’re working per day. This way, you’re getting more surfaces that are being touched cleaned and hopefully reducing the spread of bacteria even more so. After we come out of this pandemic, we’re surely going to all be more conscious of keeping ourselves clean and helping to stop the spread of infections again. You also might want to encourage employees to wear gloves, like the ones you can purchase from Unigloves. After all, every layer of protection matters.
Put Social Distancing in Place
Social distancing is critical to help reduce the spread, and if that’s something your workplace can’t provide at this moment, then it’s worth keeping your business doors closed until you’re able to. If you can, then you want to make sure that you’re actioning these social distance measures by informing your staff but also putting up signage around the workplace. It’s important to reinforce the importance of it, and we’re only human, so we end up doing what we’d usually do by default.
A regular reminder to socially distance and the signage is going to help your staff remember that they need to be keeping their distance at all times, even when in the workplace. They should also be keeping their workspaces ventilated by keeping windows open where possible. If you need guidance, here are some socially distant working practices for warehouses that you can take a look at.
Encourage Your Staff to Be Wary Of Symptoms
It’s something that everyone is doing at the moment, and that’s being aware of one’s symptoms. There’s nothing wrong with being too careful when it comes to sickness, especially as the colder months come in. It’s known to be the case that many more tend to get sick because of the change in weather, but it’s good to pay attention to what symptoms might be like for a common cold and then what doesn’t feel like a cold but perhaps could be related more to COVID. Be attentive within the workplace and encourage your staff to be wary of any symptoms they have, whether it’s when they’re in the workplace or out of it. Any sign of a sniffle or sore throat should mean isolation for the staff member and anyone who comes into the contact with them.
Maintain Flexible Working Hours
Flexible working hours are something that could do with being maintained if there are quite a few of you within the workplace. Try to maintain this flexibility within the workplace, and if you’re needing to do split shifts or having certain staff members in one day and then others on another day, so be it. It might make things a little difficult, but it’s going to be more effective in ensuring your staff’s safety from COVID-19.
Don’t Expect the Same Level or Amount of Work
And finally, just because some staff may be back at work and in the workplace, you should remember that this is a unique situation to be in, and it’s likely that things aren’t going to be back to normal. That means you shouldn’t be expecting the same level or amount of work to be done as your staff might not be as productive, or your resources might be limited.
In order to provide a safe and healthy working environment for your staff, use these tops to keep everyone safe… and to hopefully stop the spread of COVID-19.
And if you happen to be working from home, try this comprehensive guide on setting up a home office.
