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4 Ways To Protect Your Workers During A Pandemic

 Who knows when the coronavirus pandemic is going to end? Most likely, it’ll be a political decision. The costs to liberty and the economy will eventually become so great that people will demand changes in government policy. 


But until that happens, employers have a problem on their hands: namely, how to keep their people safe. 


It’s no laughing matter. Any company caught acting in a cavalier manner risks damage to its brand. And multiple people getting sick simultaneously is a real business continuity issue. Having all your best people struggling to get over a virus is not a situation you want to find yourself having to deal with. 


In this post, we take a look at some of the things that you can do in any pandemic to keep your people safe. Viruses seem to do whatever they want, but companies can take steps to reduce the chances that their people will get sick while preserving their productivity and output - something we need in a time when the economy is tough for a lot of people. 


So what can you do? 


Practice Social Distancing At Work


The coronavirus isn’t the Spanish flu. For healthy people, the chances of dying from the virus are relatively small. However, then as now, the solution is to practice social distancing as much as possible. 


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Social distancing can be something of a challenge in the workplace because of the number of people who have to cram into a relatively small space. But if you’re able to operate shift or flexible working on your premises, you should give it a go. Try bringing people into the office on alternating days of the week so that they can remain productive while, at the same time, reducing the difficulties of maintaining a two-meter distance. 


Hire A New Cleaning Company


Firms like Cleaning Equipment 4 U demonstrate that there’s a big difference between cleaning companies. Traditional office cleaners would empty the waste paper baskets and clean the toilets with bleach. But it was all about keeping the place smelling and looking nice. These outfits understood very little about infectious disease control.


Since the advent of the pandemic, however, we’ve seen a surge in interest towards companies offering both cleaning and disinfection services. These companies have special cleaning equipment that allows them to say with confidence that they’re killing the coronavirus on your property. That’s not something that you always get with regular run-of-the-mill outsourcing firms. 


Provide More Break Time To Encourage Hand Washing


Many people in the public health arena see hand washing as the gold standard for disease control and prevention in the office. 


Employers, therefore, should both encourage it and provide time for workers to do it. Extra breaks, therefore, can help keep workers’ hands clean and stop them from accidentally infecting themselves on the job. 


Make Travelling Employees Quarantine


Despite the fact that the infection is everywhere, quarantines are still in place. And so it is one way that employers can reduce the spread of disease. If somebody has had to travel, don’t allow them into the office for seven days.

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