March 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic challenged us with rapid and unexpected changes to our way of life. For Canadian businesses, some of the challenges meant more remote workers, job losses and adhering to government guideline to help flatten the Covid-19 curve. For HBG, we remained in operation as an essential service with majority of our workforce working remote and closing our doors to non-essential office visitors.
Six months later, with provincial approval to move to Stage 3 (Recover Phase), we are preparing to re-enter staff back to our physical office workspace. Since March 2020, we have made many changes to our health and safety standards to ensure we protect our employees. We used government resources, industry guidance and an internal committee to help get us through the last six months. In order to facilitate the Stage 3 (Recover Phase) transition safely, we engaged the expertise of Covid Care Services™ a division of PhasedIn Solutions Inc.
Covid Care Services™ Approach
Breckles Group of Companies engaged Covid Care Services™ (CCS) to ensure that Phase 3 (Recover) is executed in a safe and successful manner.
The aim of this initiative is to build confidence, trust, and reduce the risk of Covid-19 in the work environment through safe practice. To achieve this, a three-pronged approach was employed: 1) understand and define the Breckles Group current work environment 2) identify safety gaps within the workplace 3) optimize safety practice through current safety
practices and protocols education, and hands-on training.
An onsite physical space assessment identified opportunities for enhanced safety practice, specifically mitigation strategies for high-traffic areas, identifying high-touch surfaces, cleaning and ventilation areas of concern, meeting room(s) capacity, need for additional sanitizers, and additional safety protocols. The Needs Assessment identified current workplace strengths and opportunities for bridging gaps between leadership and staff needs/perceptions and understandings. The onsite session allowed for hands on practice of personal safety techniques, such as hand hygiene and face covering etiquette. All participants successfully completed the return demonstration of these crucial safety practices. The session identified key areas of focus for Breckles Group: 1) develop, test and implement Safety Plan, 2) Covid-19 workplace safety protocols, 3) enhance frequency of Covid-19 specific communication with staff, and 4) revise physical environment.
What We Discovered
As we all know, the best practices in place to help mitigate the spread of Covid-19 is to stay 6-feet apart, wear a face covering and wash our hands on a regular basis. These measures are proven to be effective, but create some challenges within an office environment where staff are working close to each other. Thanks to Covid Care Services™, we learned how to prepare our office to re-enter staff and how to manage the environment on a daily basis.
Our key takeaways:
1. Clear, concise, weekly staff communication in a multimodal fashion
2. Apply Covid Care Services™ Hierarchy of Effectiveness training
3. Limit room capacity for all communal spaces
4. Provide staff with a Covid-19 symptom checklist
5. Implement clear and defined process for symptom checks
6. Designate spaces for object(s) sharing
7. Design finite traffic flow in the office with minimal crossover
9. Designate a safe space/recover room
10. Clean high use surfaces like door handles twice per day
11. Provide sanitizers in all common spaces
12. Regular check-in with individual staff members
13. Co-create with staff policies for processes in the workplace
14. Regularly (minimum bimonthly) review and update Covid-19 policies and checklists
15. Transmission prevention plan for hot spots: kitchen, reception, bathroom
Employee Testimonials
“Personally I found the training with Covid Care Services to be very informative and easy to follow. I learned so much more than I expected. Detailed information was provided and explained in a way for our staff to understand. Highly recommend all their services, they are professional, friendly and really care about the wellbeing of people.” ~ Elena D’Agostini, Vice President, Operations and Human Resources
“The session was very upbeat and informative . This is a very serious situation and I do feel better about the workplace and all we are doing to keep safe. Thanks so much.” ~ Sharon McGhee, Customer Service Broker
“For me, that was really useful, they were really professional and patient and anytime we had a question, they helped and explained everything. Learning about washing hands and how to sanitize was really good and how to use a mask storage device.” ~ Leila Sayadi, Receptionist
Contact us if you would like to know more about how Covid Care Services™ is playing a key role in getting our staff back to our physical office workspace.
You can also learn more at www.phasedinsolutions.com