COVID-19: Guidance for the Workplace
COVID-19 has been wreaking havoc on work, schools, services and our peace of mind. But, if we stay calm and work smart, we all stand a better chance of getting through this with our health (and the health of those around us) intact. Read on for our tips to manage COVID-19 in workplaces across Canada.
Employee's Guide to Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic
If you have to go into work:
- If you must take public transportation, take extra care to avoid touching surfaces and especially to not touch your face. Avoid sitting or standing near people with obvious symptoms and wash your hands with soap and water once you arrive at work (even if you used hand sanitizer).
- No matter how you got to work, wash your hands with soap and water as soon as you arrive.
- Try to maintain at least 6 feet or 2 metres of physical space between you and your co-workers whenever possible.
- Whenever possible, avoid face-to-face meetings, opting for phone, video, email and IM instead.
- Regularly clean frequently touched surfaces such as your desk, phone, keyboard, office door handle and so on.
- Wash your hands often and use a paper towel to open shared bathroom doors and turn faucets on and off.
The two most important parts of this? Keep your distance from others and frequently wash your hands. A lot.
If you’re working from home or in quarantine, here’s how to keep up your sanity and motivation:
- Get dressed every morning. Yes, it’s tempting to spend the day in your jammies, but dressing for work can be very motivating.
- Establish a schedule that includes regular breaks where you actually get up and walk around.
- Set up your workspace near a window, if possible.
- Go outside! Social distancing doesn’t mean we have to lock ourselves indoors. Take regular walks on your own or with your family, avoiding other people and crowded spaces, but taking in the fresh air and sunshine.
- Order groceries and household supplies online and avoid panic buying. This is Canada in 2020. Supply chains are well established, so there’s no need to hoard a year’s worth of toilet paper. Unless you need a few basics urgently, order what you need online and have it delivered, or order it for pickup, which will at least limit your time in grocery stores.
- Take advantage of online resources to stay active or expand your horizons. Many museums are offering free virtual tours, there are free online yoga sessions and workout classes, you can register for online art classes, start learning a new language, practice tai chi, meditation, woodworking, knitting or any number of other activities from your home.
- Spring clean. A fresh space can mean a fresh mind. Take breaks to clean, declutter and freshen up your living space.
If you don’t keep yourself busy beyond work, cabin fever can set in quickly. Get on top of it sooner, rather than later.
Employer's Guide to Responding to the COVID-19 Pandemic
Managing COVID-19 in workplaces across Canada must be a top priority for the moment. This is about ensuring the health and safety of your workforce and surrounding community, as well as leading by example. The more businesses that actively and responsibly respond to the pandemic, the more that will follow.
Yes, in a few weeks it may look like we overreacted, but that’s actually the ideal outcome. If we all do our part now to reduce the spread, ideally we should be back to business as usual, quickly and in full health.
If you do not currently have workplace pandemic plans in place, it’s time to get serious. Here’s what you can do:
- For any role that can be done remotely, do what needs to be done to get people working from home.
- Keep your workplace bathrooms well stocked with soap and paper towels and put up signs reminding people to scrub for at least 20 seconds and use paper towels instead of hand dryers. And try to make it fun with song suggestions — like singing happy birthday twice.
- Put hand sanitizer near all frequently touched stations such as printers, coffee machines, meeting room phones, etc.
- Whenever possible, suspend non-essential face-to-face meetings in favour of virtual meetings.
- If you can’t completely close the office, consider offering rotating schedules to reduce the amount of people in the office at the same time.
- Communicate regularly with your employees to help maintain morale. Make it more personal and engaging by sending videos instead of text emails.
- Host regular video calls to keep everyone looped in and to maintain the sense of camaraderie and teamwork as much as possible.
- Be the example. If employees are given the option to work from home, set the example by doing so yourself and encouraging your leadership team to do the same.
Tips to Respond to Employee Anxiety About COVID-19
As we said before, this is all about precaution, not panic. There is a lot of fear mongering going around and misinformation being shared. As business leaders, now is your chance to be community leaders as well. Here are a few tips to respond to employee anxiety and help control the panic in your community:
- Communicate with calm. Take precautions seriously, but remind your employees that these are merely precautions, and if we’re smart about it, we can stay safe. And remind them to rely on facts — be responsible and not fearful by relying on information provided through government sites, instead of word of mouth,
- Share resources beyond work. Take the lead on finding online activities for employees and their families.
- Respond to media trends quickly and calmly. When a new trend or fear comes up in the media, look for the facts and/or reach out to experts in the field to get their take, then share what you’ve learned with employees to calm any fears that have come up.
- Take the pandemic seriously, but add in some lightheartedness when you can. There are some great videos out there of medical professionals turning hand washing into music videos and other fun, but informative content.
- Connection is one of the best ways to calm anxiety. Find ways for employees to connect beyond meetings. Have competitions for best home office, video dance challenges, cutest pet, most creative home workout and so on. Take it up a notch by offering prizes of gift certificates to local restaurants to be used after the pandemic. Many restaurants are struggling to keep their doors open and buying gift certificates is a good way to help them through it while maintaining social distancing.
- If you have the resources, send employees weekly care packages of household supplies to calm scarcity fears and keep them from lining up at stores and exposing themselves and others to the virus.
- Consider offering online counselling or support services for any employees having trouble managing their anxiety. Perhaps you can offer subscriptions to counselling apps or seek out the services of a local psychologist or counsellor willing to conduct group or one-on-one support sessions.
- Set the example by talking calmly about your own fears and how you’re working to manage them. A sense of community can be deeply supportive, but in a professional setting, it often takes someone in a respected leadership role to drop the armour and open up for others to relax and more comfortably work through their own fears.
Above all, remember that our calm, responsible actions today are all about ensuring a safer and healthier future. For employers, this is also a perfect opportunity to build loyalty and engagement among your employees by taking real steps to help them stay safe and protect their families, putting the well-being of your team and your community above all else.
We’ve gathered a list of helpful links to help you find information on Coronavirus (COVID-19):
Provincial & territorial websites
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