Yesterday, we started the first in our series of COVID-19 advice posts with some tips around defining risk in your workplace. We shared some suggestions how to work out what you need to do, to keep your employees and customers safe during the phasing out of 'lockdown', whilst optimising employee engagement in the process. Today, we are talking about some steps we could and should all be taking to keep our employees and customers safe during the pandemic, as well as how to promote confidence in your environment.
As with the last post, the advice in this series is by no means intended to be legal or expert. We have taken our suggestions largely from HM Government’s document “Working Safely During COVID-19 in offices and contact centres”, which you can read for yourself HERE.
What is expected of you, as an employer?
The law states that employers have a duty to reduce workplace risk to the lowest reasonably practicable level by taking preventative measures. This means that you are not expected to completely eliminate risk (that's pretty impossible) or bankrupt your business with over the top measures. But you should be doing everything you can within your reasonable ability, to reduce the risk to employees and customers as much as you can.
Clear as mud? There's certainly a grey area there, isn't there? But that's because, what is practical for one business sector, is completely out of the question for another. If you are a hairdresser for example, in addition to the requirement to wear your own PPE, you might decide to ask customers to wear face coverings throughout their visit. That request wouldn't be so workable for a dentist or photographer! You can read more advice specific to close-contact services HERE.
Each business needs to carry out its own Risk Assessment to work out what is reasonably practicable for them, keeping in mind the expectations of their employees and customers, but also factors specific to their operation. There are some steps that we can all take, regardless of our business though.
The HM Government guidance suggests:
Residents of Bucks Biz have an advantage here in fully flexible units to help with increasing the distance between employees and customers - if you need more space to make this work, we can accommodate increasing unit sizes easily.
Some other simple measures you could take:
Spread the news (not the virus!)
Once you've done all of this work to ensure your workplace is as COVID-19 safe as possible, how will you let people know? Think about sharing the results of your risk assessment with your employees, union representatives and even publishing them on your company website (all employers with more than 50 employees are expected to do this anyway). You could even share via your social media channels, so that your customers know that they are safe with you too.
You can download a notice to display in your workplace and electronically, from the government website HERE.
Come back tomorrow, when we will be discussing what extra steps you might want/need to take to secure the safety of people who are at higher risk and/or needing to self isolate.
Bucks Biz provides office space for rent in Milton Keynes, with units available for all sectors, to suit a wide range of requirements. From small one-person start ups, right up to large spaces fit for 100 people (to be socially distanced!) we have the perfect base for your business.
Our flexible licences allow you to easily upgrade and downgrade your space as and when your business requires it - so you won't get caught out by needing more space to spread your employees out again.
We are more than just space to rent though. We are a community of businesses all eager to help each other. Throughout the pandemic, we have supported our residents to secure funding where it has been available and in adhering to social distancing and safe working practices, throughout our centres.