As businesses all over the country are starting to reopen, you might be thinking of some ways that you can help your employees feel safe coming back. We have identified ten different steps you could consider that might help your employees feel confident that their health and safety is a priority when coming back to work.
The National Safety Council worked with the Safe Actions for Employees Returns (SAFER) task force to identify ten different actions that you can consider before and during your reopening process. These steps are listed below:
Phasing
You can create a phased transition for returning to work along with risk and exposure levels rather than having everyone come back at the same time. As an example, you can have a some staff come in three days, and the remaining staff come in the other two days, then alternate weeks.
Disinfect the Workplace
You can clean all surfaces professionally and consider bringing in air purification systems. Regularly disinfecting and making any physical alterations needed for social distancing like spreading out desks, workspaces, and reworking conference rooms and offices can go a long way in making your employees feel safe.
Screenings
Consider developing a health status screening process for all employees. Use the CDC guidelines for developing this process and keep in mind that some individuals can be asymptomatic.
Hygiene
Think about developing a plan that details on how to handle sick employees and encourage safe behaviors for good hygiene and infection control. This includes handwashing, having hand-sanitizer and protective equipment available daily, and provide employees with up-to-date health information.
Tracing
Many businesses are using contact-tracing. You can develop a contact-tracing plan to have in place if any of your employees get sick to help stop the spread of COVID-19. The CDC has tools in place that can help you develop this plan as well as training programs.
Mental Health
The current state of our world can take a toll on anyone’s mental or emotional health. Consider finding some ways to support your employees’ mental and emotional health. This is can help in supporting their overall health. One way you can do this is by re-examining the mental health-related benefits your company offers.
Training
You can create a new training program as refresher for your managers or leaders on the fundamentals of safety, like risk assessment and hazard recognition as well as the impacts of COVID-19 on mental health and well-being. This can help ensure that everyone is on the same page and help develop a plan for handling the current situation.
Engagement Plan
Right now, it is possible that your employees might not feel as engaged in the business as they normally are. You can help them feel engaged by keeping them up to date on how the company is making decisions and hold monthly meetings to touch base. Consider taking some time to think about any employees that might be at higher risk of developing complications from COVID-19. You can take some time to review the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA) and any other laws that protect those higher risk individuals to help make sure you’re being both sensitive to the needs of your employees but also protecting yourself.
Communication
Consider developing an open communication plan with your employees on your return-to-work process as well as developing a multifaceted approach. This can include emails, social media, phone calls, video calls, or text massages. Getting all employees on board with the plan can help ensure that everyone is on the same page!
Assessment
Another recommendation is to outline the main factors that you company is using as guidance to provide a simple structure to possible difficult, return-to-work decisions.
During these times, amid a pandemic, your employees’ health and safety is more important to you than ever before. Being understanding and thoughtful towards employees during this stressful, uncertain time will go a long way. These ten recommendations can help ensure your employees are returning to a safe work environment and feel safe doing so.