Safety Guidelines for Workplaces amid COVID-19

The Indian government has decided to ease the restrictions post the second lockdown to revive the stalled and damaged economy of the nation. Many IT/ITES companies have been permitted to function and operate with 33% employee capacity.

For the safety of our workspaces, we have taken major steps to ensure that we maintain cleanliness and hygiene to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in our workspace.

We are happy to share that all of our centers are COVID-19 compliant. Finally, Novel Office is ready to operate and welcome the clients from 04th May’20.

For your workspace, this article can be used as a guideline for ensuring the safety of the employees and members in an organization while operating amid COVID-19.

In this post, we have talked about many low-cost safety measures that organizations and individuals need to take in order to:

• Prevent the spread of COVID-19 in a workplace,
• Manage risks while organizing meetings in a workspace

COVID-19 spreads when someone who has COVID-19 coughs or exhales. They release droplets of infected fluid on nearby surfaces and objects.

Anyone touching those contaminated surfaces and then touching their eyes, nose, or mouth gets affected by COVID-19 and becomes a carrier of the virus as well.

How to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in your workspace

Any employee or organization should follow the practices mentioned below to ensure the safety, even if COVID-19 has not inflicted the workplace you operate from.

• Make sure that objects and surfaces in your workplaces are clean and wiped with disinfectants regularly.
• Maintain a safe distance, minimum of 6 feet from another individual and avoid physical contact or shaking hands while greeting,
• Avoid using elevators and encourage the use of staircases,
• Avoid touching surfaces with fingertips or the front of your hand,
• Avoid touching your face, nose or mouth with fingertips or the front of your hand,
• Educate and promote regular and thorough hand-washing and hand-sanitization by employees frequently.
• Ensure that all the employees and individuals are wearing face masks.
• Practice good coughing and sneezing etiquettes. Any individual should cough or sneeze into the elbow and away from other members.
• Advise and educate your team members on the maintenance of personal hygiene as well.
• Ensure that any employee with even a mild cough or low-grade fever (37.3℃/99.2℉ or more) stays at home or works from home and gets medical consultation in case of any symptoms.

How to manage COVID-19 risk when organizing meetings & events

Before organizing any meetings or events, any individual needs to think about the potential risk from COVID-19. There are possibilities that people attending your meeting or event might be unwittingly bringing the virus to your workplace that even others might get exposed to.

So, reconsider whether a face-to-face meeting is actually necessary. If not, try to arrange a teleconference or an online event instead.

In case you are organizing a meeting in your workplace, consider the following measures for the safety:

• Do not conduct a meeting with 10 or more members. Try to scale down the attendance so that fewer members attend it.
• Pre-order sufficient supplies and materials, including surgical masks, tissues, and hand sanitizer for all participants to offer.
• Ensure that all the participants sit at a safe distance (minimum 6 feet) from each other.
• Identify an area where someone can be safely isolated in case they feel unwell or have symptoms.

Moreover, make sure you collect the contact details and present residential addresses of all the organizers, participants, and visitors at the event or meeting. These details should be shared with local public health authorities, if any participant becomes ill with the suspected infection.

Always keep a track on the areas where COVID-19 is spreading and verify the information and communication channels in advance with key partners such as public health care authorities for every predictable instance while operating amid COVID-19.