Are you ready to combat the novel coronavirus and prevent its spread at your workplace?
The unprecedented surge in Covid-19 cases around the world has created chaos and worry and led to the spread of misinformation. Thus, employers are faced with the challenge to prevent the virus as well as eliminate the negative information associated with it.
If you have not initiated the work from home policy yet, as an employer, you need to take necessary precautions to protect your employees. You need to be transparent about how the virus can impact the organization and educate everyone about preventive measures that they should take to keep themselves and others safe.
Here are some tips to prevent the spread of Covid-19 at your workplaces:
Cleaning the Workplace
When it comes to cleaning, the main focus should be frequently touched surfaces at workplaces including workstations, washroom countertops, doorknobs, etc. The CDC recommends employees to clean and disinfect the surfaces using commonly used agents. As an employer, you should think about distributing disposable wipes to employees, counseling them to wipe the surfaces before use.
Food shouldn’t be left open in the kitchen tops and cafeteria for communal sharing. It must be wrapped individually. Also, cutlery and crockery should be thoroughly cleaned with warm water and detergent after use and be dried properly.
Encourage Frequent Hand-washing
Keep reminding the employees that the best way to protect themselves is to wash their hands often and avoid touching their eyes, nose, and mouth. The WHO recommends lathering and rubbing the hands continuously for 20 seconds. Employers should attach signs on washroom and kitchen sinks to keep reminding their employees.
Promoting Social Distancing
Since person-to-person transmission is common for Covid-19, immense care needs to be taken in this regard too. Guide everyone to maintain at least a 1.5-meter distance between each other. This should be particularly emphasized for cafeterias, where employees tend to sit together for coffee and lunch. This can be difficult to enforce though. Let people know that this isn’t going to last forever and that these practices are important to prevent the spread of the virus.
Keep a Check on the Employees’ Health
Keep monitoring the health of your employees coming to the office. This is the time to be highly flexible in terms of leaves. Those with the slightest symptoms of acute respiratory illness should be allowed to stay at home and not turn up until they’ve fully recovered. This means they must be free from fever for more than 24 hours without the use of any symptom-altering or fever-inducing medicines.
As an employer, you must be well aware of the leave policies issued by public health guidance and consistently follow them for the well-being of your employees. Tell them to cancel any travel plans, especially if your own area or the destination of the travel is heavily affected by the pandemic.
