Keeping the work environment Covid Safe

Added: 07 Jul 2022 15:43 - Workplace Health and Safety

As we all learn to adjust and live with the threat of Covid 19 in our everyday lives, there are measures we can all take to reduce the risks of catching or passing the virus on. Covid has naturally been the focus for elimination over the past few years, but it is also wise to consider the transmission of other respiratory illnesses and influenza, these can spread quickly and may cause severe illness in some.

The role of overseeing these measures will often fall to employers, workforce managers and those who are managing a workplace or organisation.

Respiratory infections tend to spread fairly easily between people, so it is important for staff and employers to be made aware of all symptoms, so they can take any necessary action to reduce the risk of spread. Covid 19 symptoms have evolved with different mutations over time, which is why it is a good idea to keep up to date with the most recent symptoms to look out for. Most people in the UK have now been vaccinated so will not contract the virus or will present with only mild symptoms, but it is still important to try to protect the vulnerable where we can.

Here are a few simple steps we can take.

Vaccination:
Vaccines are of course the game changer in all of this, they are enabling us to return to normality and proving crucial in getting the economy up and running again. Vaccinated people are far less likely to contract COVID-19 with symptoms, be admitted to hospital, die from the virus or indeed pass it not to others, which is why it is important to support and encourage all of your work force in getting theirs. Here are a few points worth remembering and discussing.

Having the COVID-19 vaccine means:

• your employees can better protect themselves and those around them
• lower risk of your employees catching and spreading COVID-19 to colleagues, therefore reducing the negative impact on your workforce
• protecting your customers when using your services
• bringing your staff back safely into the workplace sooner

All those aged 18 and over can book their vaccination through the NHS booking service. You can also call 119 free of charge.

Ventilation:
Opening windows and doors within your work building is a great way of keeping airflow and lowering the risk of transmission. One of the reasons these respiratory infections tend to spread more widely in the winter months is the lack of airflow, this is when we tend to spend more time indoors with windows closed and within close proximity of one another.

Maintain a clean work space:
It’s important to keep individual work spaces clean, but also communal areas such as kitchens and bathrooms, this can play a huge role in keeping the spread of the virus to a minimum. One way you can encourage this is to make cleaning products readily available to staff, have spaces cleaned regularly and to provide hand soap and sanitisers for workers wherever you can.

Reminders:
No matter how often you remind people to be vigilant it is very easy to forget. Having a few reminder signs around the work environment is a great way to gently remind all your workers to keep up the good work!

These are just a few quick tips and ideas for keeping everyone safe. Keeping transmission within the work place to a minimum is essential for any business and naturally the best way to keep workers from having to take time off, which is why we recommend the ‘Coronavirus (Covid 19) and pandemic awareness course’. As with our CPD accredited courses the SCORM compliant Coronavirus (Covid-19) and pandemic awareness training allows businesses to quickly and easily deploy pandemic training to a workforce. The simple-to-use learning platform provides an audit trail for all employees and stores their training records.