KITCHENER — With the coronavirus constantly in the headlines, some businesses may want to consider planning for it.
While the threat level in Canada still remains low according to health officials, Frank Newman, Newman Human Resources said its no different than planning for a fire.
"This is no different than planning in case the building next to your factory catches on fire, and you have to evacuate for two days or three days, so it's really just emergency planning."
He appeared on Kitchener Today with Brian Bourke on 570 NEWS Monday with some tips for the workplace.
1) Communication
With a lot of fear and panic surrounding the COVID-19, it helps to clearly communicate with your workers about what the company is doing about, according to Newman.
"The key thing companies want to do is to make sure employees feel confident that companies are making the right plans."
He said workers need certainty in the event they are quarantine, or may have to work from home. That companies need to show they are prepared for the worse, while not relying on the hope that the worse doesn't take place. Newman said its good to think of it from the position of "disaster recovery management."
2) Cross-training
Newman said this is a good time to think about cross-training in the event the workplace does lose worker who has to self-quarantine.
"I talk to a lot of companies that say 'yes we're going to do cross-training,' but quite frankly and often it doesn't happen."
A sick employee means productivity drops if coworkers can't pick up their workload. He said its an opportunity to evaluate your resources and talent to see how your business will fare if someone is missing, and how you can make up for it.
3) Working from home
Larger companies can more easily accommodate for employees to work at home, but medium and small sized businesses should evaluate their work-at-home policies. For many smaller businesses, its best to figure out a system to work with the employee. Whether its sorting out their hours, whether they need to call in, and what the best way of communicating with the rest of the team is.
"So, this becomes and opportunity to really manage virtual teams. Virtual teams typically have a team huddle in the morning over the phone. The supervisor may call in to check in on the during the day."
It's also important to sort out the security arrangements. Some documents and data may not have the clearance to be taken offsite for example.
4) Sick Pay
It's important to make it clear to workers what the sick pay policy is at the company.
"A lot of smaller employers don't have sick pay policies, and so if you're quarantined, you may find yourself having to use vacation to make up for that time, or you may find yourself in a no pay situation."
If the company doesn't have a sick pay policy in plan, it may be time to get one, or even consider employment insurance (EI) from the government. It's a worthwhile for a company to be clear to their workers, and maybe even consider providing it in the first place.
5) Updating personal info and emergency contacts
It's one of those important things that can easily fall to the wayside. Keeping up-to-date info on your employees can keep the company prepared if the worse does happen. Being able to contact them or their emergency contact can be crucial in these times. Newman said it takes next to nothing to ask workers to update their info.
6) Limiting physical contact
Cutting down on physical contact with customers can also cut down on spreading germs, but its important to effectively communicate with workers about this.
"It's thinking about practical ways to keep your business running without necessarily engaging in too much physical contact."
Newman said he's seeing many organizations cancelling travel plans and avoiding unnecessary customer contact. He said he expects to see a "boom" in Skype meeting, and forms of e-chat to communicate.
