COVID-19: Five safety tips for your organisation after lockdown ends

If there’s one thing COVID-19 has taught or reinstated to businesses, it’s that uncertainty is definitely a part of the real world. And since these businesses operate in the world, they must be made accommodations for events of uncertainties in their businesses.

This, therefore, implies that business owners must be forward-thinking in their strategies moving forward.

One of such strategies is in preparation to receive employees during the post-lockdown. These suggestions may point you in the right direction in reopening your business after the lockdown:

• Provide Protective Gear For Employees

As a way of protecting the health of members of staff during the post-lockdown, management should invest in protective gear. This way, before members of staff make way into the premises, they can be properly kitted up to contain both the chances of spreading and contraction of the virus.

You can decide if these gears would be provided daily for members of staff or if this would be a one-off distribution.

Consider opting for reusable gloves and nose masks. That way, staff members can wash their personal gear after use.

Sanitizers can be distributed periodically to individual staff members or to departments, or both.

• Integrate Remote Working Culture 

Despite the resumption of daily activities, this latest development includes important clauses which cannot be overlooked. Factors like overcrowding are still illegal and prohibited.

For this reason, business owners may want to consider rejigging their organizational or business’ structure.

Rotate among members of staff — especially those whose tasks can be met remotely — to enable remote working periodically.

• Encourage Sick Members of Staff To Stay Home

Let members of staff understand that they should remain home should they notice they are ill. If possible, hold a session with staff and explain the implications and dangers of reporting to work sick.

Encourage them to speak up should they feel symptoms of illness. To monitor that all members of staff resuming work are healthy, invest and provide temperature checkers at the office’s entrance.

• Place Prohibitions On Gatherings Within The Office Premises

Lunch crowds and any form of gatherings within the office should be prohibited. If possible, in workstations housing more than ten members of staff, space out their sitting arrangements and discourage any form of physical contact among staff members.

In fact, if possible, prohibit staff members from galavanting other departments or offices other than theirs.

• Filter Face-To-Face Meetings

To further buttress social-distancing in the office, substitute meetings for online video-calls. 

Do not be in a hurry to call for face-to-face meetings (especially those requiring more than five people). Restrict face-to-face meetings for teams of two or three people, if you must. Otherwise, remain keen on video-calls as a means of staying abreast with team members’ progress as well as other matters pertaining to the business.