Staying healthy at work is the number one priority, so what can you do as an employer in response to the outbreak? We look to the professionals for advice and offer 7 tips for employers in this article by IOSH Magazine.
Staying Healthy At Work
The World Health Organisation are working in conjunction with IOSH to make sure the latest information about coronavirus is available. It is especially important for health care professionals to know the risks and take precautions because they are exposed to hazards everyday and are perhaps the most at risk of infection. It is for this reason among others that WHO has put together important guidance for OSH and healthcare professionals entitled, “Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak: rights, roles and responsibilities of health workers, including key considerations for occupational safety and health”. Click Here To Find It.
The Best Defence
It starts with personal hygiene, the everyday things such as washing your hands. As an employer it is important to give employees the best defence against coronavirus. Make sure you plan and prepare accordingly, be open about what precautions you have in place and let employees know exactly how you plan to respond.
IOSH Advice
IOSH recently shared guidance on how to protect travelling employees and how organisations can manage risk:
- To effectively manage travel risk you need to ensure you have proportionate and robust policies, procedures and controls in place.
- Consider whether the travel is absolutely necessary: can you achieve the same result with video conferencing and spare the organisation and traveller the risk, time, cost and environmental impact?
- If travel is deemed necessary then you need to effectively but proportionately manage the risk, with controls identified and implemented which reflect the nature and severity of the risk.
- You will always need to know where your workers are and where they are going.
- Should your travellers become involved in an incident or emergency situation, you need to have a means by which to provide support for them.
- You should also provide relevant information, instruction and training to travellers, the nature and extent of which should be identified during the risk assessment process.
- Finally, don’t forget your travellers’ mental health and wellbeing.
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