Many businesses in Pakistan have allowed their employees to work from home to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. In fact, health experts the world over are recommending social distancing not just in workplaces, but in all areas of life to protect yourself from Coronavirus. However, if you are among the mission-critical employees who have to show up for work or your business is one of the many that cannot function remotely and requires the physical presence of some employees on-site, then you should take every measure to protect your office from Coronavirus.
To help you with the task, here are some of the best workplace precautions for Coronavirus.
Tips to Protect Your Office from Coronavirus
A few small precautions at the workplace can help you protect your employees from Coronavirus. Here is a list of some safety measures employers should take:
- Communicate openly with the employees
- Clean the premises regularly
- Install hand sanitisers
- Promote handwashing among employees
- Encourage the use of facial masks
- Cut down on social gatherings and food sharing
- Ask sick employees to stay at home
- Share safety measures for the daily commute
- Advise against foreign travel
- Consider tech-friendly solutions
Let’s discuss each of the ways to protect your office from Coronavirus below.
Clean the Premises Regularly
Since COVID-19 spreads when an infected person exhales or coughs and releases droplets of contaminated fluid onto surfaces or in their environment, it becomes vital for workplaces to disinfect their premises. Objects of common use such as telephones, door handles, files, and even fingerprint scanners can result in the spread of the disease. The most vulnerable to this disease are those who have weak immune systems, and as an employer, you should ensure that all of the surfaces in your office are clean and disinfected.
An effective way to provide a clean and hygienic workplace to your employees and reduce the risk of contamination is to clean the office space with a disinfectant. The office space includes tables, door handles, and all other surfaces that might be used frequently. You can also circulate emails within the office that employees should open the doors using their feet or their elbows, and install a face recognition machine to record the employees’ attendance so that they no longer need to use their fingerprint to mark their attendance via a communal use scanner.
Communicate Openly with the Employees
It is in troubled times that we all need to stand together as one unit and face the challenges ahead. As an employer, it is your responsibility to not only take the necessary precautions at the workplace but to also communicate openly about all of the steps being taken to ensure the safety of your employees.
Since gathering a large group of people is not recommended or advised under the current circumstances, generate a company-wide email instead. Inform the employees of their roles and responsibilities, not just as professionals, but also as citizens of a society that needs everyone to stay calm, cooperate, and put their best foot forward. As responsible citizens, they need to stay home if they are infected or are showing signs of being infected. They also need to report to the management about any employees having a travel history of being in an infected region in recent times, especially if the said employee turns up at work without a mask or a Coronavirus screening.
Open communication between the company’s management and the employees will help you curb the risk of infection inside the workplace.
Install Hand Sanitisers
One of the best safety measures employers should take includes the installation of hand sanitisers within the office, including entry and exit points. Once the facility is installed, employees must be instructed to sanitise their hands upon entering the workplace so that they do not carry any germs indoors. You can choose to install automatic dispensers or simply place a bottle on every floor and at every entry/exit point for your employees. Check out our post on how you can make your own hand sanitiser if it isn’t available in the market.
Promote Handwashing among Employees
While hand sanitisers are great in a pinch, nothing beats thorough handwashing. Provide your employees with handwashing liquid or soap, as well as tissues, and encourage them to wash their hands instead of opting for a hand sanitiser. You will, of course, need to ensure that the soap dispensers are kept filled and ready for use at all times. Handwashing for 20 seconds is the most effective method of preventing the spread of COVID-19. You should also instruct all employees to avoid touching their mouth, nose, or eyes, before washing or sanitising their hands, as this is how the virus can enter their body if it is present on their hand.
Encourage the Use of Facial Masks
It is vital to ensure a germ-free workspace under these circumstances. This is why you should encourage your employees to use tissues when coughing or sneezing or to cough or sneeze in the crease of their elbow to avoid infecting surfaces with droplets. Additionally, all employees suffering from seasonal allergies/fever/runny nose/sore throat should wear a facial mask to work, to protect themselves as well as others from the spread of any infections, as their own immune systems will also be weak while they are suffering from the common cold. Facial masks must be discarded after a day’s use.
Cut Down on Social Gatherings and Food Sharing
An important measure to protect your office from Coronavirus is to curb social interactions between employees and to encourage social distancing. One way to do that is to close down communal eating areas and to encourage employees to have their lunch at their desks, reducing their exposure to possibly infected personnel.
Moreover, food-sharing practices should also be curbed by circulating emails that ensure that this is for the employees’ own benefit. The availability of disposable plates and cutlery can help you prevent the spread of COVID-19 as well, especially in cases where disinfecting regular plates properly might not be a possibility.
When we talk about reducing social gatherings and the do’s and don’ts of social distancing, we also need to cover the need to avoid shaking hands with everyone we meet. Employees should be asked to greet each other verbally, from a distance, rather than shaking hands or hugging one another. While it might seem culturally rude to many, your employees also have a right to refuse to shake hands with anyone under the current circumstances, and as an employer, you not only need to support that but encourage it as well. A polite verbal greeting from a distance can curb the risk of infection inside the workplace.
Ask Sick Employees to Stay at Home
Any employee that shows definite signs of Coronavirus symptoms should be asked to stay at home. This will help you protect your employees from Coronavirus and its potential spread throughout the office. Consider asking employees to get themselves tested if they insist on coming in to work for the day or give them the facility of working from home.
Share Safety Measures for Daily Commute
Aside from taking precautions at the workplace, you also need to educate your employees about the efforts they need to make to ensure their safety during their daily commute to work and back home. Wearing a mask during the commute, avoiding shaking hands with people they know, and maintaining a distance of 3 feet (1 metre) from anyone who is coughing or sneezing are some of the key precautions your employees need to take. You can circulate emails detailing all the relevant information about COVID-19 and how it spreads so that your employees are self-aware of the dangers.
Advise against Foreign Travel
If any of your employees are about to embark on a journey, advise them to postpone their current plans as they not only risk getting infected and bringing the infection back home but might also have to face the inconvenience of being in a 14-day quarantine, even without being infected at all. Delay all office-based meetings, conferences, expos, and social events.
Consider Tech-Friendly Solutions
Even though you’re doing your best to protect your office from Coronavirus, consider moving off-site and towards digital technology and solutions where possible. Ask the employees present in your office to hold meetings online or do them via a conference call. Doing so will help you limit an employee’s exposure to other individuals in the workplace. Reducing social contact between employees also means investing in separate laptops, phones, workspaces, or keyboards, so that employees are not forced to share the same devices. For larger devices like printers or photocopiers, ensure that they are disinfected using wet wipes after every use.
Use all of these tips to prevent the spread of Coronavirus in your office and keep your employees in the loop for any recent updates that you make with respect to their safety and security. You can also check out our post on how to prevent Coronavirus at home to ensure complete safety for your family as well.
Stay tuned to Zameen Blog for more helpful posts with regards to the Coronavirus pandemic. We wish you all safe passage through these troubled times. You can reach us on blog@zameen.com if you have any questions or suggestions.
