Preparing for the Covid-Era Workplace
Communication and training will be key to ensuring employees and visitors abide by corporate policies designed to keep them safe.
As the U.S. economy continues to reopen in fits and starts, businesses are turning their attention to making their physical locations as safe as possible for returning employees and customers. Although much is still unknown about combating Covid-19, it is clear that businesses should consider several basic courses of action in preparing, implementing, and managing a return to on-site work during the coronavirus era.
Note that the actions we describe below do not encompass an exhaustive list. Every organization must assess a variety of factors that are specific to its business, with the understanding that many of these factors will remain in flux until spread of the virus is brought under control. Local conditions—including employee and manager sentiment, market needs, regulatory requirements, and cultural practices—are continuously evolving. State health department websites are a good starting point for determining the current state and local restrictions and regulations that the company must follow.
Companies should regularly confer with legal counsel and medical professionals, as well as routinely monitoring the directives and guidance from government and health authorities, to stay up to date on the ever-evolving knowledge base around Covid-19. Nevertheless, safety, finance, and risk management staff can use the following list of considerations to help guide decision-making around minimizing the spread of the virus while mitigating its impact on the business.
1. Prepare for physical distancing.
One key approach for keeping employees safe is to implement physical-distancing policies, which have been proven to be one of the most effective ways to reduce exposure to Covid-19. What does this look like? Ideally, it entails enforcing a distance of at least six feet between all workers, customers, and visitors at all times.
Depending on the workplace, this may be challenging; offices and facilities simply may not have room for employees to be adequately separated if business resumes as usual. Companies may need to evaluate creative strategies involving shift design, alternating days in the office, and/or rethinking the layout and design of the workplace. Organizations will have to tailor policies to their specific work environment, balancing the need for six-foot distancing between individuals with the maintenance of day-to-day operations.
Key factors to consider include:
- Transportation. Remind colleagues to be careful and vigilant while using mass transit. Consider implementing commuting guidelines specific to each location. Encourage off-peak commuting.
- Public surfaces. If possible, introduce automation/voice recognition technologies that eliminate touching of surfaces such as light switches, shared equipment like printers, and elevator buttons. Where hands-free technologies are not practical, it might make sense to instruct employees to use an elbow, paper towel, tissue, or disposable glove on common surfaces. It is also a good idea to place hand-sanitizer dispensers in common areas, and to encourage staff to use sanitizer or wash their hands after contact with switches and buttons. Regularly sanitizing those surfaces is also key.
- Doors. Where doors can be kept open without compromising security or privacy, make open doors or touchless doors the standard corporate policy. This practice will limit employee contact with handles, as well as reducing congestion in hallways and passageways.
- Elevators. Consider establishing elevator-capacity guidelines, such as a maximum of four passengers, based on the size and layout of the elevators.
- Wait lines. Where employees normally tend to stand in lines, seek alternatives that do not require them to congregate. For example, consider asking supervisors to record the presence of employees, rather than using time clocks, for the foreseeable future. If it is not possible to redesign such processes, consider putting markers on the floor or wall to designate minimum distances for physical separation.
- Workstation redesign. Consider redesigning workstations to avoid, or at least reduce, contact between employees. In a production environment, consider relocating equipment or installing clear barriers between workers if they cannot be located six feet apart. If such approaches aren’t practical, consider providing personal protective equipment (PPE)—such as N95 respirators or surgical masks and gloves—and training employees to safely use those tools. Additional deep cleaning may also be required.
- Face masks. Follow federal, state, and local government requirements regarding the use of face masks and other PPE in the workplace. However, managers may also want to consider whether utilizing certain types of PPE, such as N95 masks, would have the effect of depleting the supplies available to those who may have a greater need for maximum virus protection. Some organizations might opt to purchase a different kind of face covering if a shortage of N95 masks would deprive front-line healthcare workers of access to them.
- Meetings. Consider designating videoconferencing as the preferred method of meeting. Another option is to limit in-person meetings to a predefined maximum number of employees, unless senior management grants an exception. It might help to reduce the number of chairs in conference rooms, to reduce the likelihood that anyone will violate physical distancing rules. For the foreseeable future, optimizing physical distancing will be the best practice in scenarios where multiple employees gather. For instance, an organization might hold team huddles outdoors or in large spaces in which one person can be seated at each table.
- Breaks. Consider requesting that employees eat at their workstations, or while otherwise physically separated from one another. If feasible, suggest that they bring their lunches, or implement grab-and-go cafeteria services. Limit access to common areas where food is available, and consider placing sanitizing wipes near any vending machines. Also, consider staggering breaks, and enhance plans to sanitize common break areas between sittings. Establish guidelines for visiting neighboring businesses during breaks, including coffee shops and restaurants.
- Signage. Employers may choose to develop and place signage in shared workspaces to remind employees of expectations around physical distancing and hand washing.
Employers also need to step up cleaning and hygiene procedures, which can help employees and customers feel safe. As some employees will likely be uncomfortable about returning to the workplace, procedures need to be transparent, visible, and regularly audited.
2. Consider implementing a pre-entry screening process.
In the absence of a Covid-19 vaccination or reliable and widespread antibody testing, organizations may consider whether they should implement screening measures, such as temperature checks, to help ensure that employees, customers, contractors, and visitors are healthy anytime they enter the workplace. The objective of such screening would be to detect and prevent any person with Covid-19 symptoms from entering the location, in order to reduce the spread of the disease.
See the sidebar 4 Steps to Implement Covid Screening Procedures for details about what a screening process might entail. Such screening can help maintain a safe environment for everyone who enters the company’s premises. It can also help ease employees’ anxiety about returning to the workplace.
Many organizations have never conducted pre-entry screenings or self-attestation. Some may not have the in-house capabilities to do so. Another concern is that these screenings may raise privacy concerns relating to protected health information, and introducing them could potentially create liabilities for the organization. For that reason, executives and risk management teams should confer with legal counsel and medical professionals in their assessment of whether to institute pre-entry screenings.
3. Develop a protocol for managing employee illness.
In addition to taking preventative measures, employers will need to prepare for the possibility that employees may become sick while at work. If that happens, the sick employee should immediately be separated from others and sent home. The business should also have well-defined procedures in place for reacting if a sick employee requires isolation and transportation. Additional procedures should be in place for cleaning any areas that a sick employee used, and for identifying and alerting potential close contacts, all while maintaining confidentiality.
4. Plan communications carefully.
Employees returning to work on-site will likely be concerned about the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 and bringing the virus home to family members. The company should address these concerns directly, through frequent communications about the precautions the organization is implementing to keep them safe.
For example, if the company increases housekeeping practices to help prevent Covid-19 transmission—perhaps including more frequent cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces, equipment, and other elements of the work environment—explain these enhanced practices to employees. Keep in mind that visual cues can help assure employees that the premises are safe. These may include dashboards showing cleaning schedules or daily cleaning status, as well as colored wristbands that indicate every employee on-site has completed pre-entry screening. Transparency regarding the organization’s new guidelines for sanitization will aid in bolstering employee confidence.
A well-designed communication strategy is also crucial in explaining policies such as screening measures. Employers need to have clear processes in place for delivering information during a rapidly evolving situation—both for employees who return to the workplace and for those who continue to work remotely. Additionally, managers need to be equipped with a toolkit that explains new corporate policies and how they should address Covid-related workforce issues.
What, how, and when the organization communicates will be critical to creating and maintaining a safe working environment for employees, contractors, and visitors. All communications should convey caring, should be tied to the organization’s mission, and should be easy to access in one place. Consider sharing, in advance, the company’s return-to-the-workplace plan or playbook, which should describe what the organization is doing to keep employees safe, as well as explaining the role employees play in maintaining a safe work environment.
Communication platforms may include signs, videos, text messages, emails, newsletters, toolbox talks, and/or other media. In addition to the general messaging that reaches the broader employee group, consider whether segmented and tailored messaging makes sense for any specific subsets of workers who may need additional, more detailed information based on their role. Calibrate the frequency of communications on specific topics to ensure an appropriate cadence.
5. Provide training.
To keep the workplace safe for all, employees will have to adhere to new policies and procedures. Thus, once the management team has established a Covid-19 return-to-the-workplace plan for each location, and they have taken measures to prepare each of those workplaces, the company will need to establish a training plan that prepares employees for their new working environment.
Here are some topics for a training curriculum that can help organizations bring employees back to the workplace safely. Consider making such training courses mandatory.
- Covid-19 Training
- General information about the Covid-19 virus
- Explanation of how Covid-19 spreads
- Symptoms of Covid-19
- What to do if you feel ill, whether at work or at home
- Emphasis on need to stay home if sick
- General information on reporting suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19, along with how that information will be handled by the organization, including the level of detail potentially disclosed to other workers
- Employee Safety Training
- Explanation of physical distancing measures and contact reduction how-to
- General information about PPE
- Respiratory etiquette, including covering coughs and sneezes
- Importance of frequent and thorough hand washing
- Information on contact tracing (if available)
- Workplace Training
- Guidance on work-related travel and interactions with clients, customers, and vendors
- Possible restrictions on workforce shifts due to curfew orders or other government regulations
- Considerations around the transportation of employees to and from work
- Any changes in the employee benefits package, such as an increase in the number of days for paid sick leave
- Discouragement of using other workers’ phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment, when possible
6. Create a feedback loop.
Raising employee awareness of the organization’s Covid-19 response is a fundamental element of any return-to-the-workplace plan. However, it’s not enough to just explain entry requirements for employees and visitors, or to list available training courses. Organizations should also consider facilitating an avenue through which employees can provide feedback and ask questions, using such methods as surveys and regular team check-ins.
The risk that someone will contract Covid-19 in the workplace has the potential to become a distraction, but companies can mitigate that threat through frequent two-way communication. An organization’s return-to-the-workplace orientation should reaffirm the management team’s concern for employee safety and welfare, and should review key safety hazards inherent in any new operations. This will increase employee confidence and serve as a means of re-establishing the organization’s emphasis on occupational safety.
For more guidance and recommendations, download (free of charge) Marsh’s Practical Guide to Returning to Work Safely.