The COVID-19 has affected the lives of people around the entire globe. From young to aged, kids to adults, nobody is safe from this deadly virus. Besides health, it has also severely hurt businesses worldwide and forced organizations to shut down temporarily. People cannot socialize anymore, and the only option is to lock themselves inside their homes.
Although, the situation is slightly better now as compared to the past few months. But still, businesses are required to take strong safety measures to resume operations in the coming months. The company owners are responsible for implementing acceptable health practices to keep their employees safe.
Here is a complete health safety guide that will help you ensure the safety of employees during COVID-19.
Seek Guidance from Health Agencies
Being a business owner, you are supposed to follow the guidelines of health and work safety agencies. These agencies operate under the federal and public sectors, so you need to consider them as a primary source of guidance in the current scenario.
You may visit the websites of these agencies to have a clear understanding of the safety measures. It will make you understand the standard operating procedures (SOPs), so you can implement them at your workplace.
Follow Basic Hygiene Practices
Before knowing about necessary safety precautions, it is vital to stick to basic hygiene principles. Firstly, you need to consider remote work to minimize exposure and the risk of spreading the virus.
By staying at home, workers can coordinate with each other via different communication web and mobile applications. Suppose your business’s nature does not allow to implement remote work. In that case, you must follow the following social distancing and basic hygiene practices.
- You have to ensure that sick workers are staying at home.
- Give clear instructions to all workers to wash their hands after coming into the office and provide them hand sanitizers.
- Tell workers to avoid touching their eyes, mouth, or nose if their hands are unwashed.
- Make sure that everyone is avoiding close contact with sick people.
- Disinfect and clean all surfaces and objects regularly in your workplace.
- Do not create such situations where employees cannot maintain a distance of at least six feet while coordinating.
Take Social Distancing Measures
It is crucial to make employees understand that there is no point in taking safety measures without maintaining a proper distance. Many organizations are now placing plastic curtains to separate workers from each other. It is the best way to separate workstations and to ensure distancing.
You may refer to the infographic source: Minster Cleaning below to better understand social distancing and other practices. Companies have adopted strict policies to ensure social distancing at their workplaces by imposing hefty fines in any breach.
Arrange your Common Spaces
You have to pay attention to shared spaces that include dining rooms, cafeterias, and break rooms. It is vital to review working hours and schedule lunch and meetings in different shifts by having fewer people.
You can also have separate tables in the dining rooms so that workers can sit at a certain distance from each other during lunch. It could make employees feel confined, but it is essential to work safely without taking any risk. It will also positively impact employees’ performance as they will feel more safe and secure.
Clean More Often
Cleaning once a day will not be sufficient. You have to ensure the cleaning of the entire workspace before the beginning and end of the day. All workstations should also be disinfected thoroughly, including computer systems, equipment, LEDs, and other machines.
You have to identify the most commonly used places by all staff, like bathrooms, cafeteria, or meeting rooms. If people are gathered in a particular area regularly, then a virus could spread rapidly. So, you have to ensure proper hygiene practices considering these situations.
Provide Face Masks to All
While ensuring workplace safety for your employees, you should facilitate and do something for them in your capacity. You can provide face masks to all your employees as it is a necessary precaution that you cannot afford to ignore. Make it mandatory for all your workers to wear it once they enter the office. It plays a vital role in the prevention of the virus from spreading.
Conclusion
We never thought of such a scenario where we have to lock ourselves down in isolation to remain safe from life-threatening risks. Employees would have never imagined that their workstation, machines, or office furniture would become a possible contamination site.
In reality, you cannot get rid of health risks in this pandemic completely because even nurses and doctors are not safe. But we need to minimize it as much as possible at all workplaces by taking the required safety measures.
Whether it is the employer or employee, everyone’s responsibility is to help and guide each other to remain safe. We all are in this together, and the only way to get out of this is we can fight it together. Hopefully, this guide will make a valuable addition to your knowledge to ensure health safety for employees during COVID-19.