How can you make your office safe for your staff?
Photo by Cadeau Maestro from Pexels
While more and more businesses have begun to embrace remote working models in order to continue functioning during the complex and challenging era of COVID-19, lockdown, and social distancing, there’s no doubt that this isn’t going to be the case forever. In fact, plenty of businesses have found themselves in the position of either being able to or simply having to reopen the doors to their office in order to stay afloat. Whether you have already begun to bring employees back to the office or you’re just making plans for the future, one of the most important things that you can do is to make sure that you’re keeping everyone as safe and healthy as possible. After all, even as lockdown restrictions are eased, there are still plenty of risks. With that in mind, here are some things that you can do to make sure that your workplace is as safe and secure as possible for yourself and all of your employees.
Update your risk assessment
Any responsible business needs to have a risk assessment. Without one, you’re not going to be able to correctly identify the potential risks to your employees that may come up. During the current pandemic, the number of risks to both you and your employees is significantly larger than before. Because of that, you need to be willing to revise your risk assessment to accommodate the potential issues that can come about while working in a pandemic. You should be able to identify the situations in which the transmission of the virus would be possible, consider who would be at the highest level of risk, figure out the likelihood of exposure, and be aware of the best ways to respond to and control potential risks.
Keep it clean
Maintaining a clean work environment has always been important but it’s something that many business owners allow to fall by the wayside. Not only do you need to make sure that both yourself and all of your employees are washing their hands frequently to reduce the chance of the spread of the virus but keeping the work environment itself clean is also an incredibly important step. The best way to ensure that your office is as clean and hygienic as possible is to hire a commercial property cleaning company. That way, you can be sure that the job is done as carefully and professionally as possible so that your office is the ideal environment for you and all of your employees to work in.
Social distancing measures
Even if you are bringing employees back to the office, there’s a good chance that you will still need to follow certain social distancing measures. This means that you need to be aware of how you’re using the space in your office. After all, social distancing is not going to be possible if your employees’ desks are all crowded together. Not only that but you need to be sure that you’re making allowances so that employees can actually function and move around at work without having to worry about increasing the risk of spreading the virus to one another. Obviously, not all offices will allow for being able to keep all employees two meters apart but it’s possible to mitigate the risk that comes with your employees having to be closer together.
Communicate with your employees
Coming back to work can be an anxious time for a lot of people. Many of them will be unsure of whether or not it’s safe, otherwise won’t be fully sure of what’s required of them. Communicating with your employees is absolutely essential. Letting them know the situation and what is expected of them will not only help to set their minds at ease but it will also ensure that they know exactly what they need to do to keep themselves and others safe. Any changes that you have had to make to your business for everyone’s safety should be clearly explained to all employees as soon as they happen, if not before they happen.
The truth is that none of us really know what is going to happen moving forward into the future. No one knows exactly when all of this is going to end and what things will even really look like when they start to go “back to normal.” The only thing that any responsible business owner can do under these circumstances is to take as much care as possible to make sure that the people in their business are completely safe.