Shawnee Love   •   May 8, 2020

Across the country, we are getting the flashing yellow light on reopening. I.e., proceed with caution. As an eternal optimist, this yellow light is oh so welcome.  But unlike with driving, the yellow light for re-opening during a pandemic doesn’t come with clear guidance on how to proceed.  It is up to owners and leaders to figure out the right path forward for their specific organization, and we are here to help with this first of our blog series on reopening and the measures to take to protect workers at your work location.

For this blog, we want to discuss the extra planning needed due to Covid-19 (i.e., beyond the regular health and safety practices which employers are expected to have in place) and in subsequent blogs we will dig into the details.

With respect to planning, the areas of focus include:

• How to support physical distancing while operating (this may include reducing numbers of people in an area at once and/or simply increasing space between them);
• What if any personal protective equipment or barriers are required or could provide additional protection to ease people’s minds;
• How to implement or improve policies and practices to operate more safely and support mental and physical health of workers; and
• How to educate workers and customers regarding the measures taken as well as their responsibilities in keeping each other safe.

Occupational Health and Safety laws and regulations exist nationwide and they all require employers to have a plan and take appropriate actions to protect their workers, so this isn’t new. What is new, is this pandemic and the need to be creative in solutions for getting people back to work.

A great place to start is to ask your employees for ideas on how to protect their safety. Not only is that a great reason for reconnecting before heading into another weekend (which can be lonely times for employees who are isolated and lacking support), but leveraging your workers will increase the idea flow, minimize possible blind spots, enhance the likelihood of buy in for the new practices and give your employees a chance to prepare for their return to work.

Come back to our blog for more detailed information on practices, policies, tools and actions focused on getting people back in the workplace. If you have specific questions, please call (778.754.5683) or email anytime.