Business owners understand working under pressure and developing innovative solutions to seemingly impossible problems. However, even the most experienced business owners are concerned about reopening their businesses during a pandemic that continues despite many wanting to believe that it is over. They must make decisions that have potential life-or-death consequences as they evaluate their options and determine a way forward for reopening their companies.
Complex regulations and protocols govern states, and the rules vary from one to the next. Any business owner should start planning by first doing a thorough study of current restrictions and how to manage them. Factoring these rules into their equation, they can start driving the management their reopening. Here are some precautions all enterprise owners should consider, regardless of which state they operate in.
Consider providing onsite testing for staff
Employers can require workers to undergo Covid testing, although they should offer information and counseling to ensure employees understand these tests before they consent or refuse. It’s important to explain that the tests are in everyone’s best interests to know their Covid status and prevent an office outbreak.
Employees who refuse testing might need to work from home or be isolated from their colleagues if possible.
Some companies are providing onsite tests for their staff. They rely on Drip Hydration, Covid Clinic, Event Scan, and Global 7 Diagnostics for business COVID testing in Atlanta and other cities around the world. Their professional staff conducts on-site Covid testing at homes and workplaces, delivering rapid, reliable results that put business owners’ minds at ease. Employers can choose between standard, rapid PCR, or rapid antigen tests.
Contextualization
While the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and local authorities offer exemplary reopening plans, business owners should understand that they cannot approach the reopening situation with a one-size-fits-all approach. Each business has unique features and needs, and any program should incorporate these and cater to them.
As a starting point, owners and managers should undertake a detailed evaluation of the workplace to identify potential Covid exposure points to strengthen them and prevent an outbreak. While precautions are necessary throughout a work environment, some areas require more robust measures, such as public or communal spaces.
Social distancing
Social distancing is a proven way of reducing Covid infections by restricting access to employees’ personal space. However, this can prove challenging in a working environment, where employees typically stand or sit close to each other.
The first step is to critically examine the current work setup and rethink it to follow social distancing guidelines. This might involve reconfiguring desks and workstations or staggering working hours to restrict how many workers access the environment at a given time.
Where possible, employees should continue working from home to prevent them from occupying office space. Employers should restrict how many people may enter communal areas and mark intervals on the floors to guide employees and clients following social distancing protocols.
Disinfecting
The working environment should be disinfected and sanitized frequently to avoid having the virus lingering on surfaces. Employers should supply the necessary supplies that allow workers to keep their stations clean. Information sharing is essential so employees know what management expects from them. Business owners should set disinfecting schedules that employees must adhere to during their shifts. For example, an employer could insist that employees wipe a counter down before inviting another customer to approach it.
Janitorial staff should clean areas more often than they did pre-pandemic, disinfecting communal surfaces, such as doorknobs, light switches, faucets, and sinks. However, they cannot carry this burden alone, and all staff members should play a role.
Covid committee
Information sharing remains a defense against Covid that employees should prioritize. They must communicate their expectations to employees and seek their workers’ buy-in regarding any protocols implemented. To this end, each workplace should have a Covid committee that meets daily to discuss developments, new regulations, and how to enforce them.
Most employers have found success when appointing employees from all levels of an organization to their Covid committees. It streamlines communication and allows workers to feel a peer represents them.
Screening
Employers and customers should undergo screening when they enter business premises. Screening should include a temperature reading, the person’s full name, and contact details. It speeds up contact tracing if and when someone tests positive for Covid.
Some employers even include a questionnaire about potential Covid symptoms, such as fever, coughing, and joint pain. Asking people these questions will help maintain employees’ awareness about the virus and what signs to look for.
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