Top five tips to keep your employees safe in the workplace
With the government encouraging staff to return to their workplaces, the time is now to make sure your employees feel safe and supported in coming back to crowded offices. Here are a few tips on how you as an employer can make the transition easier.
- Testing
No-one should have to be worried about catching a debilitating disease when coming to work, and a robust testing regime is the number one way to reassure your staff that their workplace is safe, removing the distraction of COVID-related worries and allowing them to focus on their work.
Additionally, many employees will expect testing at work; a recent nationwide survey found that more than half of Londoners believed that regular self-testing could be the ‘new normal’, while 52% of respondents living in London said they were ready to regularly self-test until the virus is endemic.
- Social distancing
To avoid the spread of infectious diseases in the workplace, you need to ensure that employees are not positioned too closely together. Consider converting your open-plan office into sections, adding Perspex screens between desks and keeping workspaces at least two metres apart, placing one-way systems in corridors, and having employees avoid hot-desking where possible. Allowing employees to work from home will also help with this, as there will be fewer people in the office at any given time.
- Opening windows and practicing good hygiene
COVID can be transferred between surfaces, so consider providing cleaning wipes so employees can wipe down shared equipment such as desks before and after use, have hand sanitiser stations positioned on each desk and around the workplace, and wash your hands often (especially before eating and after touching surfaces such as lift buttons, phones, and door handles).
- Keeping an eye out for COVID symptoms and asking employees to stay at home if feeling unwell
As an employer, you have a duty of care to your employees during this time. Providing your employees with paid sick leave or the ability to work from home if they’re not feeling well can stop them from feeling obligated to come into work and transmitting their illness to colleagues.
- Working from home
Collaboration and creativity thrives when employees are in the office together, meetings can happen face-to-face, and people can spark off each other.
However, for individuals who cannot get vaccinated or who are at risk of a severe COVID infection, or those with chronic illnesses or disabilities, attending the office in person may not always be an option. Working from home would allow these individuals to remain a valuable part of the workforce while still protecting their mental and physical health.
Making these adjustments to your business will not only safeguard your employees, but also reduce financial risks from absence or closure. Contact us today to find out how we can set up a testing regime for your business.