After the outbreak of Covid-19, interactions came to a halt. Everywhere across the globe felt a sting of the pandemic. However, infections started decreasing with the limitation of physical interactions and safety features. Gradually, the economic world is opening up with the resumption of businesses.
When you think of opening your business again, creating a safe environment with minimal risk of infection exposure is ideal. It will improve productivity when your employees have peace of mind. Their health is critical. Plus, it will also help you avoid the consequences of infection cases, which may ultimately lead to closure again, affecting business.
Below are ways you can make deliberate choices in minimizing the risk of infections.
BIO BUBBLES
A bio bubble is creating a secure place for the involved parties. The goal is to seal your employees from the outside world. Typically, the bio bubble will only allow entry of your approved employees. It eliminates all contact with the outside environment.
Thus, before entry into the bio bubble, your employees will undergo testing for Covid-19. Isolation follows before entering the bubble. Should your employees need to travel, they will move as a group without any outside interaction.
THE ZONE SYSTEM
Consider it as a circle in your employee relations. The smaller the circle gets, the tighter your protocols and safety features become.
For a zone system to work, you will implement different areas for your employees. Ideally, the elderly and those with more susceptibility to developing the infection have more protection. Implement it expertly by getting the right HR advice for implementation through a tier system. A healthier employee workforce is vital for businesses to thrive.
The smaller tier system will have more protective measures as it grows in size to the bigger tier, encompassing the robust, younger, and healthier employees.
SANITIZATION
Everyone must uphold high sanitization standards to eliminate the risk of infection. It includes proper and frequent washing of hands with a clean, sufficient supply of running water and soap. Sanitizers should also be present in every department. However, it is essential to ensure when one is sanitizing at the hand wash station, and no physical contact ensues in the opening or closing of the taps. An automation system would be a great idea. The sanitizing dispensers should follow the same method too.
It could work with sensory detection to dispel the soap, sanitizer, and even tissues. Alternatively, you can also use a foot press pump for effectiveness without compromising physical interaction that may increase the risk of infections.
DEVELOPING A TESTING, SOCIAL DISTANCING, AND QUARANTINE PROTOCOL
For significant results, it is imperative to have a proper testing methodology. Therefore, the testing, social distancing, and quarantine should be specific for every batch of employees if found positive. Social distancing should be upheld at all times. Physical contact is the last option only when necessary.
If one feels asymptomatic, they should go into quarantine until testing is done. If tested and found positive, the employees should be treated in isolation until declared fit to leave quarantine.
USING APPS
Applications are an ideal way to implement faster contact tracing. Technology makes it convenient to deliver results in real-time. Therefore, if one employee is found positive, your team can quickly identify other employees who have been in contact with them.
Such a scenario will help you minimize the probability of an infection escalation among your employees. Upon trace contacting them, you will isolate them for testing and evaluation. So, set up some funds for your IT department to help you create apps that will help in contact tracing.
PPE FOR FRONTLINE STAFF
When your employees return to work, some departments may interact with others. It may include security personnel, delivery officials, and even cleaners. Personal protective equipment will shield one from coming into contact with infected people or surfaces.
It will include gloves and masks that offer protection. Others may also have to wear protective overalls to offer full body protection.
USING WEARABLES
Wearables are a fresh way of implementing technology to monitor the physical well-being of your employees. The tech gear has sensors with biometrics that monitor movement and health aspects like heart rate for proper medical evaluation by your tech team.
Your employees can connect through Bluetooth or Wi-Fi; therefore, if your team monitors your employees’ movements and notices any suspicious changes in their health metrics that could point to the infection. You, therefore, bring them in and isolate them before following the laid-out testing and quarantine protocol.
FACIAL RECOGNITION
In the workplace, there are several security features. While they are an excellent choice to ensure access remains in the office, it may also jeopardize your efforts to minimize infections with its need to use physical features. Instead of having a fingerprint scanner, you can instead implement a facial recognition scanner for the whole face or the eyes.
With the above measure, the idea is to actualize one significant need – safety for all employees. Therefore, a proactive approach when reacting after an incident will help streamline operations and minimize risks. Plus, you will also minimize downtime scenarios when your employees acquire the infection and have to stay in quarantine until they are declared medically fit to resume work.
