The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has been unlike anything people in today’s working world have experienced in their lifetimes. Every part of modern life, from schools to medical facilities, to public and private office spaces and beyond has been impacted by the global scale of this horrible virus. Millions of people have been personally impacted as well, as cases continue to spread through much of the world and more and more people have friends and loved ones who fall victim to the illness. It has been a very scary time for people in every line of work.

However, the world cannot remain shuttered forever. People need the goods and services that businesses provide - and to provide them, someone needs to be staffing those businesses. If your company is continuing operations during this time, you’ll need to provide extra protection and support for your employees in the workplace, but also beyond. Here is your guide to offering the kind of environment that helps bolster your employees’ health and well-being while they’re on the clock, as well as at home.

Extensive Health Protection Measures

Putting extensive and comprehensive health protection measures in place is one of the first priorities for any business attempting to continue operations during this time.

Most companies have already done this and found what works well for them. During March and April of 2020, government grants and loans and public support helped many businesses bolster the health and safety standards they already had in place, as well as rework their scheduling and workplace setups to ensure a safer, healthier environment for those at work.

During this time, though, some information was not widely available - and many sources later made amendments to the information that they shared. If you’re still not sure what measures you should be putting in place for your employees, use this list to get started:

• Ensure that employees have no need to be closer than six feet to one another at any time. This may be difficult, depending on your industry. But in most office settings, it can be accomplished with a little movement of furniture and retraining of workplace social interaction.
  
  
• Enforce a mask-wearing policy. Anywhere that employees will be within six feet of one another, they should wear protective face coverings to reduce the possibility of viral spread.
  
  
• Encourage employees to report symptoms of illness and stay home if they are sick.
  
  
• Remind your staff of the importance of proper hand-washing and set up hand sanitizing stations on or near every desk area.
  
  
• Allow employees to wear gloves if necessary.
  
  
• Reduce the number of staff you have on the floor at any given time. This is a measure that many companies are struggling with since they need a full staff to operate efficiently. However, there are plenty of ways to keep your staffing at full strength without keeping rooms at full capacity.

Flexibility Wherever Possible

That brings us to our next point - flexibility. This is a time when your company will need to be as flexible as possible with employee scheduling. Many of your employees may now be keeping children or younger siblings home during the day due to schools being closed to in-person learning. This may mean that they are also responsible for educating their children, taking care of very young children full-time, and more. While this has led to a lot of job loss and sacrifice across the globe, it doesn’t have to.

Offering your employees more flexible scheduling doesn’t just mean letting them indicate what shifts they are most available for. It means creating opportunities for them to work from home, using remote call center software and other tools. This way, your entire workforce can be available - even if they’re doing it from their couch!

Ongoing Security in Every Sense of the Word

Everything mentioned up to this point will help you to provide physical safety and health protections for your employees during this unprecedented time. But what about emotional stability and support? What about a feeling of safety and security that their skills are still an asset to your company and the consumer - and that this constant in their lives is not in danger along with so many other things?

During a pandemic, it is easy for your employees to feel like every part of their lives is at a standstill. This can breed fear of losing employment, fear of stagnation in the workplace, and worry that the skills they currently possess will soon become less marketable. As changes are made to the way we do business to accommodate new health measures and consumer concerns, these fears may only be compounded.

However, there is something that employers and management teams can do to prevent these problems. Maintaining a sense of normalcy whenever and wherever possible is an important part of this effort. Your employees are still working for your company and are still expected to perform at their best, but one way you can ensure that performance is actually by bolstering their knowledge and their confidence in their skills during this uncertain time.

Regular training and skill refresher courses are key. Partnering with a company like ChaseData that allows you to easily integrate these features into your current technology suite will be helpful to your team. This integration makes it simple to make training available to your employees without having to leave their desks, offices, or homes - all depending on what your current workplace model is.

This also helps you to reinforce other measures that your company is taking, such as maintaining social distancing while keeping productivity high. By helping your employees to continue offering the best possible service to your consumers, you’re also helping them maintain their highest possible sense of purpose and satisfaction in their skills during a time when those things might be uncertain.

To learn more about how technology can help you provide the best possible environment for your employees during COVID-19 and beyond, contact the industry experts at ChaseData today!