COVID Secure
Organisations need to act fast and adapt their workplace in order to oblige with the current government guidelines during COVID. Employers hold a duty of care and legal responsibility to protect their staff and clientele within their workspace.
At Spectrum Workplace, we are committed to helping our customers. Recently, we’ve been using our office design expertise to advise on how to best prepare your office for a post-COVID-19 world in line with government guidance.
We created a free webinar for business owners to help explain the government guidelines with innovative ways to implement them. You can listen to the webinar here.
Our top tips covered in the webinar focus on how you can get your staff back to work safely. Here is a brief overview:
How to identify and respond to risks in your business:
You need to identify shared touchpoints. Any object or surface where multiple people are going to touch in a short space of time. Contamination could spread quickly, so we need to stop this from happening.
Examples of touchpoints are common areas such as receptions, stairways, door handles, kitchen areas and many more.
The important thing is to identify every touchpoint in your workplace. Then, you can create the government recommendation of a risk register. Documenting risks and responding on how to mitigate them.
Four ways to overcome risks:
Elimination – can you remove unnecessary risks during this high-risk time?
Minimisation – if you can’t remove the risk can you minimise it? While complying with fire and health & safety.
Sanitisation – good for high-risk areas like tea points where people still have to touch objects or surfaces.
Policy – for example, a policy in place to ensure people wash their hands before using tea areas. Also, ensuring social distancing in these communal areas by only allowing two people in at a time.
The best plan for infection control
How to maintain social distancing within your space:
Keep a 2-meter distance with reminders around the workplace. Signage around the office marking out 2m and one-way systems.
Implementing a one-way system in high traffic areas can reduce the number of people who could potentially cross paths.
Implement handle protection. The virus can stay active on metal surfaces for up to nine days. Antibacterial handle covers can provide a minimum of six months of sanitary protection.
Place sanitising stations in high-risk areas with foot or sensor operated is preferable. Make sure people are aware of them and use them.
Provide screen protection for your staff. We recommend at least 70cm above desk height. Clear Screen protection can double your capacity of people safely working. Allowing for visual interaction with wipe-clean ability.
Our key advice and products:
When you are planning a return to work, your work environment must be COVID secure for the wellbeing and safety of your colleagues and customers.
Stagger staff rotas (i.e. start time) and lunchtimes to avoid high traffic and congestion in certain areas to massively reduce risks. While giving time for cleaning in between.
The government has outlined that staff should not feel obliged to return to work if they feel it as an unsafe working environment.
Consider providing personal protection equipment packs such as anti-bac wipes, masks, gloves, and more to make sure staff feel safe at all times.
We’re offering a free return to work consultation to give tailored advice and support. Book your consultation here.
We can evaluate your space and give you recommendations to create a COVID-19 secure workplace.
Visit workplace infection control.