There’s no denying that COVID-19 has reshaped virtually every aspect of our lives. Regardless of your industry, work environment, size or location, communicating messages around social distancing, sanitation and healthy practices are key to providing a safe space for your employees and customers.

Though work environments differ, we all need to stay safe. Rethinking the way we interact and lay-out our spaces – in accordance with federal, state and local regulations – can have a big impact on safety. Built from CDC guidelines, these recommended solutions to build a strong safety program in these three critical areas:

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Restart, Reopen, Recover

No matter what “phase” your return-to-work situation is in, there are several key factors to be addressed and implemented to ensure the highest level of success for both your employees' safety and your business’ success.

To achieve a stable restart, companies need to focus on the following seven elements:

Ensure employee wellbeing

Conduct a short survey to understand the perception of your workforce’s readiness to restart – are they both physically healthy, free from virus-related symptoms, and mentally healthy, as many employees may be experiencing anxiety around coming back to work after a prolonged quarantine period.

Establish an agile governance system

Set up a recovery committee to create your restart plan and priorities. Be sure to include critical restart activities, including dependencies, sequenced in a way to best accelerate recovery. Perform a quick review of your operations to understand how the pandemic has affected key points of operation.

Conduct risk assessment and planning

Do not just focus on COVID-19 related risks, but rather look at all risks, as the inherent risks in your organization have not disappeared just because of the pandemic. Everything from personnel to logistics may be different from pre-quarantine, so be prepared to assess risk as you see fit.

Secure adequate resourcing

As you initiate operations and workers return to the worksite, plan on having to resort to several immediate response measures to avoid further health risks due to the pandemic. Back-up workers and/or altered processes will need to be utilized in case of sickness, delayed shipments and more.

Determine supply chain reliability

Depending on your industry, uncertainty around customer demand, local and international production and shipping regulations could have a large effect on your overall supply chain, greatly impacting your ability to reopen. Confirm what you need to restart operations is, and will continue to be available.

Assess operational readiness

Make certain your reopen plan covers all key priorities for your specific business, including workforce and supply chain readiness, facility signage and reorganization if needed, customer demand levels and more, to restore your organization to pre-disruption performance levels, despite the uncertainties.

Ensure prompt and open communication

Be prepared to act nimbly in adjusting and reassessing as you move forward due to constantly evolving regulations and expectations. It is important to communicate both internally and externally on what has or will be done to address employee and customer health and safety.

Changing behavior to meet the “new normal”

Regardless of industry, new norms in culture and behavior need to be universally implemented.

• Create a safe and sanitized environment upon resuming services and operations

• Effectively establish and manage clear messaging and processes concerning critical behavior that will reduce the spread of COVID-19

• Implement high-performing and durable visuals, like signs, labels and floor tape that are critical elements to successful change management

Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change to achieve the required business (health) outcome. Change management incorporates the organizational tools that can be used to help individuals make successful personal transitions resulting in the adoption and realization of change.

New norms in culture:

• Less hand shaking

• More distance from your co-workers (social and workplace distancing)

• The real prospect co-workers and/or family sickness from the virus

New norms in behavior:

• Universal commitment to hand washing and sanitation

• Regular use of face masks

• Staying home if sick/self-monitoring possible symptoms

As we move forward in our local and business-specific phases of reopen and recover, there will be an expectation for all business to balance things in ways they haven’t had to before, including:

It is important to have clearly defined hygienic and behavioral expectations and processes to help uphold these expectations simultaneously. One of the simplest, yet most important, ways to set expectations is through clear and concise signage that’s durable and can withstand unique environments.

Value delivered to all business types through social distance management:

• Safety — My employees and customers can depend on how we are operating, increasing morale

• Reassurance — Communicate that the business knows the rules and is following them

• Durability saves time — Lesser-engineered products break and peel, requiring frequent replacement

• Operating efficiency — Guide traffic through my business to maximize productivity

• Limit liability — Both legally and socially by guiding, informing and directing as needed

Read this blog in its entirety and let Brady help you get Back to Business.

Previously Featured on Brady's website.