Educate Your Staff – Workplace Safety

Around the world, the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease has sickened nearly 200,000 people and led to thousands of deaths. Governments have resorted to a range of dramatic moves, including shutting borders and imposing quarantines and travel bans, to tackle the outbreak. Anti-coronavirus procedures are on the mind of every business owner throughout the world.

A survey commissioned by Prudential and relayed by Human Resource Executive sheds light on this issue. American employers are obliged to provide anti-coronavirus procedures to employees. What “little things” can you do to help tackle the viral threat?

Communicate Established Advice from Trustworthy Sources

The new coronavirus originated in Wuhan, China. Much remains unknown about this addition to the already large family of established coronaviruses, including exactly how it spreads. Much of the advice about anti-coronavirus procedures comes from knowledge of similar coronaviruses. 

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a raft of Anti-Coronavirus recommendations for employers. For example, CDC advice includes instruction on cough and sneeze etiquette. Also, the information includes how to maintain a high standard of hand hygiene. 

The CDC suggests that, in various areas of your workplace, including at its entrance, you could place posters teaching relevant procedures. Of course, you want those posters to be easily seen. You could also use equipment from Duplo International to print out educational booklets for distributing to your staff. 

Keep Advice Informative but to the Point

Naturally, any anti-coronavirus procedures you do teach about can only be as good as their execution. Hence, you must remember to also provide the supplies your staff will need in order to implement anti-coronavirus procedures. These supplies include tissues, hand sanitizer, soap, and alcohol-based hand rubs.

Employees should clean their hands often. They can just use soap and water. In this case, they should wash their hands for at least 20 seconds at a time. Or they can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer containing at least a 60-95% concentration of alcohol.

Anti-Coronavirus Procedures Affect Staff Office Presence

Take care with staff travel. Anyone scheduled to travel outside the country should check the CDC website for the latest travel guidance and recommendations.

Additionally, the Harvard Business Review cites evidence that social distancing can delay viral spread and possibly save lives. For this reason, conduct the majority of meetings and conferences through virtual, rather than in-person, means.

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This is especially wise where meetings or conferences would have attendees who are relatively old or already have a chronic disease, like heart disease or diabetes. Employees in either of these high-risk groups should avoid public places, including using public transport.

In short, anti-coronavirus procedures should take into account the individual health status of potential attendees.

Meanwhile, if any workers usually based in the office have symptoms of coronavirus infection, such as coughing, sneezing, or shortness of breath, you should—without hesitation—send those workers home.

Also, employees who have been in close contact with someone known to have contracted the coronavirus should keep away from the workplace for at least 14 days following exposure.