Dr Karen Michell | Research Programme Lead | Occupational Health | Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) | mail me |
As governments urge employers to get their people back in the workplace and so maximise office space and boost ‘post-pandemic’ service/retail economies, the focus should not just be on ‘getting bums on seats’.
We have called for managers to meet the challenges of a new world of work with flexibility and creativity. Their focus should not just be on being at work, or ‘bums on seats’ but rather driven by performance and outputs
Getting people back to work safely
The current call from governments is to get people back to work safely and to maximise the use of office space.
For many workers this may mean a return to previously overcrowded and poorly ventilated workspaces – key factors in the transmission of communicable diseases. But organisations can instil worker confidence by reviewing their occupancy and ventilation status and by making necessary adjustments to ensure better quality workspaces.
Flexible and hybrid work arrangements will contribute to reducing occupancy, which will aid social distancing and may help improve ventilation.
However, seeing that working from home is not an option for many, and workers in the gig economy must return to the workplace or face loss of earnings, we call on employers to support these workers to stay at home if they are unwell.
Adjusting sickness and absence policies
Employers might find it necessary to adjust their sickness and absence policies because as long as vulnerable workers are required to stay at home and lose wages they will continue to go into work and risk infecting their colleagues and customers.
Yet there are measures other than working from home that can be used to prevent the spread of diseases in the workplace, and we should continue to remember the lessons we learnt from COVID-19.
These include:
- Promoting vaccination.
- Improving ventilation and control occupancy to reduce transmission risk.
- Maintaining good workplace hygiene (eg hand sanitizers, frequent cleaning schedules).
- Encouraging personal hygiene (eg hand washing, coughing into an elbow).
- Continuing to promote lateral flow testing based on symptomatology, with the cost covered by the employer when needed for work purposes.
- Remembering that not everyone can work safely from home, that flexibility is needed to create models that benefit all.
- Establishing an organisational culture that reflects an environment where workers feel empowered to take responsibility for their wellbeing, are provided with information so they can make informed decisions and where they feel supported by management.
- Reviewing current policies to continue to address issues related to COVD-19 and other communicable diseases, like influenza.
The continued implementation of these controls will help protect workers, especially during seasonal outbreaks, reducing their risk of exposure to not only COVID-19 but also any other future communicable diseases coming our way.