Offices and companies need to adopt new safety measures and strategies to prevent the spread of the COVID-19. Sanitation, social-distancing, and flexible work timings would play a significant role in the ‘new normal’ workplace strategies.
We have listed down a Covid-19 safety checklist, which includes essential health guidelines and recommendations. These guidelines are crucial for organizations to follow to keep their workplace covid free.
1: Promote Sanitation and Maintain Hygiene
Always focus on keeping the workplace clean and hygienic. Ensure that every corner of the workplace is sanitized frequently, with a minimum of 7-8 times a day. The most touched surfaces like door handles, desks, and telephones must be sanitized regularly using a disinfectant spray. Workplace furniture should be dry cleaned frequently. Woodard Restoration provides the best dry cleaning services that ensure the surrounding is safe and virus free. Automatic sanitizer dispensers should be installed at the main door of the workplace.
Washing hands with prominent hand washes should be the employees’ first task as soon as they enter the workplace. It is necessary to eliminate the virus and prevent the spread. Another most important rule to implement is wearing masks. Offices should give a strict rule for employees to wear a mask whenever they enter the workplace.
2: Ensure Social Distancing
It is highly essential to implement social distancing in the workplace. The COVID-19 virus spreads in microdroplets that can land on shared spaces used by multiple employees. Any uninfected individual can easily catch the virus by touching those contaminated objects or surfaces. Maintaining social distance can immensely prevent the spread of the virus or spread further to anyone else. Even if an infected person arrives at work and others are unaware of it, promoting social distance would drop the possibility of catching the virus.
Adopt flexible worksites for both telework and remote work. Allow fewer people to enter the office, reduce the number of meetings, and decline visitors to enter the workplace if necessary. Rearrange worksites and maintain more gap between employees. Place each desk six feet apart from each other and avoid using shared equipment. Install physical barriers such as plastic barriers or plexiglass to guide the workers and maintain social distance.
3: Flexible Working Hours
Conducting flexible working hours in the workplace would help everyone to adhere to social distancing. This would also help to keep the workforce feel safe and healthy during this pandemic.
Flexibility in work timings would be beneficial in reducing the chances of contact between employees. Employees must avoid using public transport during heavy traffic hours. Additionally, the working hours need to be timed beyond the regular 9 to 5 routine. This would also highly reduce the stress of the employees, help eliminate anxiety, aid to a better mental health and they can stay focused at work.
4: Use Advanced Technology
This pandemic has forced changes in workplace technology. The use of advanced technology plays a vital role in the strategy of workplace safety. Video monitoring can help ensure whether employees are abiding by the rules and guidelines of social distancing. It is an affordable solution to ensure public safety.
Since this virus spreads when people contact each other, organizations must install contactless biometric attendance systems. Offices usually use technology where employees mark the attendance by finger impression, which has a high risk of virus spread. Contactless biometrics is essential to discourage the requirement of touching shared surfaces like scanners. Facial recognition tools to mark attendance can detect a human face by measuring facial features, which doesn’t require the hassle of touching any surface. Basics like flat extension cord, computers, laptops, door handles, etc should be sanitised regularly.
Temperature scanner is another tool of contactless technology. The use of hand thermometers should be a big no during this pandemic. Offices must use digital temperature scanners to check the employees’ temperature, which doesn’t require contacting an infected person.
Conclusion
The most crucial factor of an organization must be the safety and health of the employees. Ensure promoting sanitation and wearing masks to minimize the transmission of COVID-19 virus between employees. It is vital to follow these safety precautions and guidelines to keep the workforce healthy.
