How Can I Protect My Team and Customers From COVID-19? This Checklist Will Help.

• Official guidance in some states says that a person should only leave their house for work if they cannot work from home (e.g. in NSW, see here). Check your state or territory guidelines.
• If your workers can continue to carry out their work from home, consider having this continue. 
• You may wish to implement or formalise your Working From Home policy, including that each worker assess their remote working set-up to self-certify that it is without risk to health and safety.

• Consider the risk level of different modes of public transport and at different times of day. Transport operators in all states are working to implement their own measures to minimise risk, such as increased cleaning. 
• You may encourage workers to change their shift patterns, where possible, to travel at a time when they can avoid rush hour and there will be fewer people on public transport.
• Consider providing masks and additional hand sanitiser to any worker who travels by public transport to your workplace, for use during their journey. 

• Increasing the frequency your cleaners clean your workplace;
• Erecting screens between desks, patrons, tellers, customer service workers, etc;
• Each work day, require every worker to wipe down their own workstation, and shared equipment or vehicle, before and after each use;
• If resources are available, consider issuing each worker with their own set of tools/equipment so that items do not need to be handled by multiple users;
• Communicate guidelines and expectations of optimum and frequent hand hygiene and to refrain from touching the face;
• Ensure adequate soap for hand washing and place hand sanitiser at the entrance and inside your workplace. Position hand sanitiser alongside any shared screens;  
• Depending on your industry, Issue your workforce with individual masks or encourage people to bring their own;
• Pause the use of shared kitchen spaces and even shared coffee and tea stations. Encourage everyone to manage their own meal and drink and bring their own coffee mugs;
• Besides masks and depending on your industry, consider if any personal protective equipment is needed;
• Where workers are touching consumer products throughout the day, in addition to hand hygiene, issue them with a new pair of disposable hygienic gloves for each shift if this practice is not already in place.

As at the date of writing, the Department of Health has advised that people should remain at distance of 1.5m from one another, and in a place that may remain open to the public, occupiers and operators of the premises must allow at least 4 square metres of space for each person on the premises. 

You may need to:

• space out your work stations to conform to this rule;
• implement floor guides for queueing in your workplace;
• stagger attendance of your workers, where possible;
• remind people not to congregate;
• maintain social distancing for meetings.

• Encourage cashless transactions such as tap and go, to reduce contact between workers and customers.

• adjusting the working hours of your workforce in the office; or
• staggering attendance in the office so that only half (for example) your workforce is present in the workplace on any given day. 

This would help to achieve sufficient physical space per person and minimise the spread of COVID-19. 

It is a demanding time for everyone and there is a lot of uncertainty. It is likely that some of your workers may feel a heightened sense of stress and anxiety, whether in connection to job security, mass changes to an industry, social isolation, their own physical health or vulnerability to the virus. Indeed, these factors may be affecting you too, as you manage your business in these very demanding times. 

There are employee support programs you may consider implementing, which can offer you and your workers access to professional assistance to discuss the issues, implement strategies, and support your workforce’s mental health.  

• A social distancing policy, so everyone knows exactly what is expected of them.
• A Work Health and Safety policy, which covers the responsibilities at every level of an organisation, from management to visitors.
• A Working From Home policy. This is where you would require your employees to self-certify that their home office is safe and to address any risks that exist. This kind of policy helps alert employees to the factors that contribute to a healthy and safe working environment. At the same time, it helps you as an employer to do what is reasonably practicable to ensure that a home office (which is a place outside of your control), does not pose risks to your employee’s health and safety. 

• Workers who have been isolated after having tested positive for COVID-19 can return to work when they have fully recovered and have met the criteria for clearance from isolation.  
• The criteria may vary depending on circumstances of the workplace and states and territories may manage clearance from isolation differently. Clearance may be by the public health authority or the person’s treating clinician.
• There are specific criteria for clearance which apply to health care workers and aged care workers. As these may change, these workers should check with a medical practitioner or the public health authority as to whether the criteria for clearance from isolation has been met before they return to work.  

• If a worker has completed a 14-day quarantine period (either after returning from travel or because they were in close contact with a confirmed case), and if they did not develop symptoms during quarantine, government guidelines provide that they do not need a medical clearance to return to work. 
• You do not need to ask these workers to be tested for COVID-19 in order to return to work.

• Post guidelines on all of the above new measures and social distancing guidelines around the workplace in high visibility areas.
• Clearly communicate to your workers and your customers that if they have any COVID-19 symptoms or are feeling unwell, they must not enter the workplace.
• Let customers know what measures you are putting in place to ensure their safety and that of your workers by emailing them regular bulletins and displaying information at the workplace itself.