Guide to Resume Business Post Coronavirus Pandemic

The worst pandemic of the century has shattered many businesses. While many small businesses failed to survive the economic dip, many strategically developed businesses are making plans to revive as the government launches economic stimulus packages.

The pandemic showed the worst time to businesses. Moving experts Moving Apt reports that the demand for the best long distance moving companies (click here for the list) has surged as businesses plan to move to safer locations as well as states where grants for business survival are better than their existing locations.

Amid all the ruckus to ensure financial recovery, it is also imperative that employers pay heed to provide safe and sanitized working environments to the employees. It is common knowledge that precaution and prevention is the only cure to this lethal virus as of now, focus on sanitization and disinfection should be the top priority.

Taking charge of business coronavirus safety checks:

If you are a small business, you are the sole leading authority and the one who should be responsible for compliance with federal, state and local orders. You must ensure that you maintain an OSHA safe workplace for your employees, customers and visitors.

On the other hand, if you are a mid to large scale business, your Human Resource department must be actively involved in educating employees, conducting sanitation drives and ensuring installation of hygiene-related fixed assets such as hand sanitizer dispensing machines and hand washing stations.

Understanding and complying with CDC and OSHA guidance:

CDC and OSHA guidelines are must to be followed for business to operate amid the Coronavirus pandemic. Ensuring workplace safety is imperative because one positive case can easily spread and infect the entire facility. To strengthen the workplace safety you must:

• Develop an infectious disease preparedness plan and accordingly build a Coronavirus safety environment at your workplace.
• Conducting training of employees to emphasize on safety measures against the lethal virus.
• Conducting cleaning and sanitation drives at the workplace.
• Developing employee schedules in a way to limit the number of employees in the facility at a time.
• Providing work from home option to employees.

What is an employee tests positive for COVID-19?

It is very critical that you keep a tab of your employees’ health. If any employee reports positive for the virus or you get a call from the local health department about a person visiting your facility being positive, you must follow the mentioned guidelines:

• Send the sick employee home ASAP and conduct a deep cleaning and disinfecting drive.
• Communicate with your team and let the co-worked of the positive employee know about the current situation. While you communicate, make sure you comply with the HIPAA privacy of the employee.
• Ensure that other employees who have contacted the person self-isolate themselves for 14 days and closely monitor their symptoms. Offer these employees work from home option if possible.
• Contact with your local public health authorities to know about any additional precautions to be considered.

Sanitizing workplaces for safety against Coronavirus:

Educating your employees:

The first step towards maintaining a clean and sanitized workspace during the pandemic is educating your employees. The government has enough advertised and promoted good hygiene practices at social places and the same must be followed by your employees.

However, as an employer, it is your responsibility that the employees are provided with the right tools and assets to ensure personal hygiene and social distancing. Encourage your employees to wash hands frequently and also follow sneezing and coughing etiquettes. Make sure your employees’ wear masks at all times to prevent the infection.

Using EPA registered disinfectants and sanitizers:

EPA has released a list of disinfectants and sanitizers that are safe and effective to use against Coronavirus. Make sure that you use EPA registered disinfectants and sanitizers only. Engage professionals to deep clean and sanitize the facility once every week.

It is also important that the day to day cleaning is performed keeping the coronavirus guidelines in mind. While cleaning the workstations, make sure that all the high touch surfaces are thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Make sure to follow all the using instructions mentioned on the product label.

Engaging professional sanitization services:

While you must have a dedicated team of housekeeping experts, the Coronavirus cleaning and sanitization of different nature it is great to avail training for your in-house employees and meanwhile engage a professional company.

The experts are abreast of the updating sanitization and disinfection guidelines and ensure that your premises are maintained 99.999% pathogen free. Another benefit of engaging the experts is that they know how to work on different sites and surfaces and hence ensure safety for your facility as well as assets.

Review your preparedness:

Time to time review of your preparedness for the virus us very important. Form a preparedness plan and a committee responsible for the safety of the facility. You must also check your employee’s health by engaging a health care provider who would keep a check on the employee’s vitals including symptoms of the virus.

If any employee has a runny nose, sore throat, fever or other flu like symptoms, it is better to allow them a paid leave and offer work from home option. You must be very vigilant in observing the health of the employees as a single positive case can become the source of a mass spread.

Businesses have faced tough times during this pandemic. Businesses which were able to ingest more resources, take business online, allow work from home options to the employees survived and are now open to the public However, it is important that proper prevention guidelines are followed at all times.

Even if you are moving your business to a safer part of the country, make sure you put these tips and information to use to avoid a breakout of the infection. It is high time you find out ways to maximize your business profits, but as you do, make sure you adhere to the federal, state and local health and safety guidelines.