If your employees need to drop by the office, or even if they’re returning completely, then you will need to develop some safety protocols. You should make masks mandatory, ensure distancing, and have them monitor their symptoms. Each of these things will help ensure the safety of your employees.
Make Masks Mandatory
It’s a good idea for you to make wearing a mask mandatory for anyone who sets foot in your office space. Requiring masks while the employees are in the office will help to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help protect your employees. Providing masks to employees and encouraging their use to prevent the spread of infection can make other workers feel more comfortable and willing to come into the workplace. There is no approved or certified design for cloth face masks. However, the CDC has instructions for masks and proper mask wearing on their web site. Making masks mandatory is an important step if your employees need to drop by the office.
Ensure Distancing
Employees may need to be reminded of distancing rules multiple times before they remember. it is a good idea to post reminders throughout the office. To help reduce the number of employees in the office, you’ll likely be tasked with reconfiguring your workplace and staggering work hours or even alternating workdays for different groups or teams. Staying at least six feet away from other individuals in your workplace significantly reduces the likelihood of transmitting the virus. To help ensure distancing, you can establish maximum capacity for the office and use appointment setting wherever possible to limit congestion.
Symptom Monitoring
Employees who return to the workplace, even if just to make a quick visit to pick something up from an office, must conduct symptom monitoring every day before reporting to work. They must be free of any symptoms potentially related to COVID-19 or have been evaluated and cleared by their medical provider to be eligible to report to work. All employees should monitor symptom onset daily to lessen the community spread of COVID-19. Symptoms include cough, shortness of breath, fever, chills, and many other possible symptoms outlined by the CDC.
When your employees are returning to the office, either part-time or permanently, it’s important to put some protocols in place. You should make masks mandatory, ensure distancing, and ask for symptom monitoring. Putting protocols in place will help you to protect your employees and the people they are around. It may be a hassle to enforce these policies, but the safety of your workplace is worth it!
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