Coronavirus has been a significant concern ever since it came into existence. From schools to businesses to large group activities, there is nothing that is left untouched from the impact of Coronavirus.
According to the World Health Organization, the Coronavirus, otherwise known as COVID-19, has spread in almost 70 countries. Moreover, the rising death toll also gives a dire warning to prepare for this pandemic. It poses a unique challenge for the health authorities altogether.
However, governments of various nations are working cohesively with its citizens and have advised them on how to deal with this virus. Now, attention has been shifted to what businesses can do to help prevent the disease from spreading and protect their business.
As the virus has spread around the world, the WHO and the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) have urged businesses to ask sick employees to stay home. Or if they have been exposed to someone who has the virus or have recently traveled to a country that has an outbreak to self-quarantine for 14 days.
Here is a Coronavirus response plan that a business can implement to prevent the pandemic from spreading:
Switch to Remote Work
As companies are urging sick employees to work from home, they have started re-evaluating their remote work policies to prevent the disease from spreading. You too can also develop the best remote work policy for your particular business and ask your employees to stay at home.
Make sure you have steady lines of communication to keep all your employees aligned. Create support groups with experienced remote work employees where they can share their knowledge, which would help your employees to assimilate into a new work structure.
Limit Travel
Companies have been limiting travel since this global health crisis started. You can also restrict non-essential travels to China and other nations that are affected by this outbreak as well as domestic travel.
Employee Support
It would be slightly tricky for employees to assimilate into a new work structure so they would question everything initially. To avoid chaos, make sure you address their concerns proactively. Consider creating FAQ documents to inform your team about your plans so they can communicate easily.
Create a Contingency Plan
Creating a contingency plan as you would for a hurricane plan. Make plans for this sudden outbreak as you don’t want sick employees to come to the office. Then, maintaining sick day caps for them is a better option if working from home is not an option.
In this global crisis, all employees should help other employees and guide them in the best way possible. Having a plan at this moment would help you address the uncertainties and their concerns as this situation unfolds in the future.
Educate Your Employees
Washing hands, respiratory hygiene, sanitizing contaminated surfaces, and maintaining a healthy social distance are things that are generally underappreciated. It’s wise to use hand sanitizers frequently and wash hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds.
However, these are simple and small practices that are effective and take you a long way. Educate your employees about these little habits that they must implement so as to lessen the impact on your business.
It is high time for businesses to review their current policies and strategies so that no one suffers from this global pandemic. At present, it is entirely a dynamic and fluid situation; taking these easy and practical steps would prepare your company’s workforce for the Caronavirus outbreak.
