As the second wave of the pandemic sweeps across India, safety experts are consistently monitoring the information, learning from past assessments, and considering the impact this may have on the workplace. The British Safety Council has been mindful throughout the pandemic that constantly evolving new information about the virus can influence how organisations see their emergence back to full operational capacity. These new learnings necessitate a reassessment of existing Covid-19 safety protocols for companies.
What protocols should companies reassess?
British Safety Council recommends that companies should reassess their Covid-19 safety protocols in two distinct areas, namely: 1) risk management and 2) control measures.
1) Risk Management
This involves covering risk assessment, planning, and implementing controls, roles and responsibilities, communication and training, monitor and review. The protocol should be able to assist employers in ensuring that the risk of infection from COVID-19 is reduced as far as is reasonably practicable, in line with health and safety, and other relevant legislative requirements.
Essentially, a risk assessment must consider the following two questions:
• Where within the workplace can people come into direct, close contact with others or touch potentially contaminated surfaces, equipment, and materials?
• What activities are undertaken which give rise to the opportunity for transmission?
While assessing risk, companies should consider several factors, including:
• Workplace configuration (set-up)
• Workflow (access to, and egress from, the workplace)
• How people travel to and from their place of work
• Operational activities
• Level of workplace occupancy
• Working hours (shift patterns).
It is recommended to conduct an analysis of workflows to identify where products, items, and people move through the workplace. Use floor plans or site layout plans to identify locations where people might interact or assemble. From this, companies will be to identify contact points or potential congestion hot spots where there may be an increased risk of transmission.
2) Control Measures
This includes all control measures that cover remote working, health surveillance and testing, social distancing and workplace adjustments, hygiene controls, PPE, staff wellbeing.
Beyond total avoidance of personal contact, for example through remote working, there is no single measure that can provide total safeguarding for the many combinations of work activity and the movement of people within the workplace. Hence, a selection of specific types of control measures that can be combined to provide the best practical protection to employees and others within the workplace needs to be put into place.
A coordinated approach will produce better results
Enough time should be allowed for the planning and preparing for any return to operational activity within the workplace. In larger organisations, establishing a COVID-19 management team will help to provide a more coordinated approach. It must be someone in a senior management role to lead and oversee these preparations and to provide sufficient resources and support for effective implementation.
Sharing information, understanding the control measures selected, and of the underlying approach, is essential in ensuring compliance, sustainability, and, most importantly, reassurance to employees, visitors, and other stakeholders.
Communication will play a vital role in the implementation
Once the COVID-19 management plan and protocols are developed, consideration should be given to the key messages and information which employees and others will need and to prepare the methods required to communicate these effectively.
Providing visual information through posters, signs, screensaver prompts, and televisual presentations at entrances, exits, and throughout the workplace will be important to reinforce and remind everyone of why these precautions are needed and the reasons they are in place.
Key factors for reviewing updated protocols
The important factors in the review process to emphasise here are:
• Outcomes from workplace monitoring (including feedback from staff) should be used to review, revise, and improve (as appropriate) the control measures in place
• Government, sector-specific, and other expert advice should be constantly monitored to determine whether improvements or relaxations in control measures are appropriate
• The risk assessment, COVID-19 management plan, and associated protocols, together with the management of the change process, should be reviewed whenever there is a change in operational activities or other arrangements.
The last year has taken a massive toll on societies across the world impacting affluent and poor nations alike, but now, through acquired learning about the virus and the availability of effective vaccines, people are seeing light at the end of this long tunnel. However, we must also be aware of the challenges that remain even after effective inoculation.
Based on assessments last year, the British Safety Council has seen fantastic evidence of how innovative organisations have been in managing the crisis. The revised guidelines proposed, therefore, have set out in clear terms the areas any organisation should consider for evaluation, and provides some practical expectations within the guidance.