Contents
1. Getting back to normal... sort of
2. Approaching cleanliness and sanitation differently
3. Promoting compliance to cleanliness among employees
4. New attitude towards sickness in the workplace
5. Balancing duty of care and workplace culture
6. Channelling your emotions in a productive way
7. Social distancing in the workplace
8. Employers your employees are watching
9. Final considerations
1. Getting back to normal… sort of
As a country, we appear to have handled the COVID-19 pandemic well, however the real test will be whether we can remain vigilant in the coming weeks and months, and ensure we are keeping ourselves, our co-workers and our communities safe.
With COVID-19 restrictions easing around the country, it’s only a matter of time until we are all returning to work, school, travel and commuting.
In this post-pandemic world, it’s going to be more important than ever for employees and employers alike to maintain high standards of cleanliness and sanitisation in the workplace and high touch-points to ensure the health and safety of everyone.
As you return to the workplace, you need to be asking yourself the following questions:
- If your place of work isn’t an office, how can you be sure the equipment you are working with is clean and sanitised?
- For employees: How can you achieve total peace of mind and ensure your workspace is clean and germ-free?
- For employers: How can you be a responsible employer, give your employees peace of mind as they are returning to work, and fulfil your duty of care to ensure the workplace is clean and safe?
2. Approaching cleanliness and sanitation differently
Moving forward, the requirements for cleanliness and sanitisation in the workplace will be vastly different to what they were before the COVID-19 pandemic.
This means that the approach a workplace takes in implementing cleaning practices and addressing hygiene standards will need to be much more thorough in the post COVID-19 world, with stricter workplace controls and guidelines for cleanliness.
This is a responsibility to be shouldered not only by employers, but employees and contract cleaners as well, as the key to eliminating risk of another outbreak will lie in the preventative measures and vigilance of everyone.
Key question: If your place of work isn’t an office, how can you be sure the equipment you are working with is clean and sanitised?
If you work in the hospitality, mining, child or aged care sectors, or any other industry where your place of work isn’t an office, ensuring your equipment and work spaces are clean and germ-free might be difficult.
What if you work in transport, and it’s your job to hop in a truck someone else has just driven across the country? How about if you are putting on an apron a co-worker has been wearing for their earlier shift?
In these circumstances, it can be harder to ensure the areas and equipment of your workplace are clean and sanitised, but there are still a number of procedures and products you can use to minimise the spread of germs.
Sure Shield Surface Sanitiser has been designed to sanitise those tricky to reach surfaces like toys, sandpits and door handles, and can also be used to sanitise fabrics. It is a leave-on product, so all you have to do is spray your equipment at the end of a shift to ensure all germs and bacteria are destroyed.
With this extra barrier against germs and bacteria, your workers will have total peace of mind returning to work, whatever type of office they are in.
3. Promoting compliance with cleanliness among employees
In the post COVID-19 world, all employees will need to adopt a new approach to the role they play in keeping the workplace safe, and ensuring the office remains safe and clean as they are returning to work. This is imperative to reduce the risk of transmitting bacteria and germs.
Key question: How can you achieve total peace of mind and ensure your workspace is clean and germ-free?
Touch tracking is a thought process which, 6 months ago, not many people would have heard of. In a post COVID-19 lockdown world, this is something everyone needs to be thinking about constantly as they are returning to work.
What is touch tracking? Think of it this way: How many surfaces do you touch between entering your workplace and sitting down to work, without thinking twice about it? Now imagine how many other co-workers touch those same surfaces every time they enter the workplace. What if the very first person into the office, or the last person leaving the night before had germs on their hands? How many people have those germs now spread to?
Being aware of the surfaces you are touching, as well as who else is touching them, and ensuring there are measures in place to keep those surfaces clean is the first step in ensuring the workplace remains a safe and clean space as employees are returning to work.
Here are some of the most common workplace surfaces that everyone touches multiple times a day, mostly without even thinking about it! How many have you touched today? How many times?
- Banisters
- Light switches
- Door handles
- Fridge handles
- Kitchen appliances
- Taps
- Toilet flush buttons
- Mobiles
- Computer keyboards
- Remote controls
Now you know what surfaces you need to be thinking about, how can you be sure they were clean when you touched them? This is a key area where new workplace procedures need to be developed to stop the spread of germs.
Sure Shield 360 Disinfectant Spray is one fantastic product you can use in the workplace to achieve total peace of mind when it comes to ensuring your surfaces stay clean and germ free, and give employees peace of mind as they are returning to work.
This product has been purpose designed to kill all germs and bacteria on every type of surface. Simply spray and wipe those high impact touch points in your workplace regularly throughout the day with 360 and you can be sure better than 99.9% of germs and bacteria will be killed PRONTO!
4. New attitudes towards sickness in the workplace
As we move forward from the COVID-19 pandemic, all workplaces will be required to develop a new attitude towards sickness in the workplace, to ensure the risk of another outbreak is as low as possible.
This can be achieved through the development of a new cleaning culture within the workplace, with stricter procedures and policies around cleaning and sanitisation.
In this new era where the spotlight will be on health, cleaning and sanitisation within the workplace, the health and well-being of employees needs to be at the forefront.
We’ve all experienced it; a light cold or pesky cough that we’ve brushed aside, prioritising the importance of a work deadline we are aiming for over our health. But as we are returning to work in a post COVID-19 world, employees need to take the initiative in ensuring they are prioritising their own health, and in so doing, prioritising the health of their co-workers.
What might previously have seemed a trivial ailment, not worth taking a sick day over, now needs to be brought to the forefront, as minimising the spread of germs and bacteria is imperative to maintaining a healthy workplace.
So, if you wake up with a sore throat or a sniffly nose, do yourself and your team a favour, and take the day to sleep it off, returning to work when you are back to full health.
5. Balancing duty of care and workplace culture
Returning to work, it’s easy to feel like everything is back to normal. However, employees, as well as employers, need to remain vigilant in maintaining social distancing practices as they return to the workplace.
This doesn’t mean the good old days of swapping war stories around the water cooler are gone. It means that everyone, employees and employers alike will need to learn to balance maintaining an enjoyable workplace culture with a duty of care to themselves and all others in the workplace to reduce the risk of spreading germs and bacteria.
In achieving this balance, employers will need to promote a cohesive environment, where employees can communicate and enjoy spending time with their co-workers as they did before the COVID-19 lockdown, while still observing the need to ensure practical measures are in place to keep the everyone safe.
6. Channelling your emotions in a positive way
In the post-pandemic world, employees are likely to encounter a range of emotional responses around returning to work. These could include fear of infection, and possibly frustration at the new practices that may be in place to ensure the spread of germs and bacteria is contained.
As we head back to the office, being aware of, acknowledging and accepting these emotional responses will be a key element in dealing with them constructively, and stopping them negatively impact the work you are doing.
Once you can acknowledge and understand how you are feeling and what has led to those emotions, you can work on channelling that energy into improving productivity in the workplace.
Working on channelling your negative emotions into productive work is a great method of coping with a drastically changing environment, and possibly a very different workplace. This strategy, combined with ensuring you are following social distancing guidelines and maintaining good hygiene will ensure our health; physical and mental, will remain intact as we are returning to work.
7. Social distancing in the workplace
Social distancing: it’s become perhaps the most commonly cited phrase across Australia in 2020, but what does it really mean, and how can you ensure you are doing everything in your power to ensure the safety of yourself and others as you are returning to work?
If you follow these simple guidelines, you are doing your part to stop the spread of germs and bacteria:
- Stay 1.5 metres away from other people where possible
- Avoid shaking hands, hugging and kissing
- When making purchases, use tap and go instead of cash where you can
- Avoid crowds by travelling at quiet times
- Ensure you are practicing good hygiene, which means washing and sanitising your hands regularly throughout the day
- If you have any cold or flu symptoms, STAY HOME and seek medical advice
In a post-pandemic world as we are returning to work, social distancing will quickly become standard practice in the workplace, but how can you ensure you are maintaining these safe practices without generating fear among your customers?
Make sure all new procedures are practical in an operation sense, so customers and staff can adhere to them without changing the flow of the workplace too dramatically, is key. It is also important to ensure your customers are aware that the practices have been introduced for their safety as a preventative precaution, rather than in response to a negative experience.
As we move forward, it’s important to remember, and remind customers where necessary, that these social distancing measures are in the best interest of everyone, and are there for their safety and security.
8. Employers, your employees are watching
It will quickly become clear where employers are being responsible and ensuring the safety and peace of mind of their employees is at the forefront of their thoughts as we are returning to work.
Key question: How can you be a responsible employer, give your employees peace of mind as they are returning to work, and fulfil your duty of care to ensure the workplace is clean and safe?
It’s something all responsible employers need to be considering carefully over the coming weeks and months; how can you make your employees feel safe as they are returning to work?
All employers owe a duty of care to their employees, as well as their customers, to ensure those in their workplace are safe and able to carry out their jobs with minimal risk of illness or injury. There are a number of ways this can be implemented effectively to ensure your workers feel safe returning to work.
Alongside introducing stricter workplace controls and guidelines for cleanliness, employers can take additional steps to go the extra mile and ensure their employees feel safe. One great way of ensuring total employee peace of mind is by supplying Back to Work
Safety Packs to all your employees as they are returning to work.
How can you be sure you’re shielded from COVID-19, as well as all other germs and bacteria returning to work? Why, with Sure Shield of course! Sure Shield is purpose building a range of Back to Work Safety Packs which can be custom designed to suit the needs of your workplace and employees. Check out the Sure Shield range here.
With your choice of travel size Hand Soap, Hand Sanitiser, Surface Sanitiser and 360 Disinfectant, these are the perfect welcome back gift for your employees, to ensure your workers have total peace of mind and are shielded from all germs and bacteria as they are returning to work.
9. Final considerations
As COVID-19 lockdown restrictions ease around the country, and, as a nation, we are returning to work, there are a number of important considerations that not just employers, but employees as well, need to keep at the forefront of their focus, surrounding cleanliness and sanitisation.
As we navigate this new postpandemic world, it is the duty and responsibility of every single person to ensure they are maintaining social distancing practices, considering touch tracking and cleaning and sanitising hands, surfaces and equipment regularly.
As a country, we appear to have handled the COVID-19 pandemic well, however the real test will be whether we can remain vigilant in the coming weeks and months, and ensure we are keeping ourselves, our co-workers and our communities safe.
How can you be sure you’re shielded from germs and bacteria as you are returning to work? With Sure Shield of course! With a broad range of cleaning and sanitising products, Sure Shield has everything you need to head back to the office with total peace of mind. Order your cleaners and sanitisers today here.
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