With coronavirus still very much a presence in our lives, staying safe and healthy has never been more important – particularly in a work environment where contact with others is inevitable. Keeping employees as safe and risk-free as possible should therefore be your top priority as a business, both for the health of your staff, and the health and success of your organisation as a whole.
Simple workplace prevention measures
In order to ensure your business is as safe as possible when it comes to the spread of COVID-19, there are a number of simple prevention measures you can take:
- Keep your workplace clean and hygienic by wiping surfaces regularly with an alcohol-based sanitiser.
- Encourage employees to wash their hands regularly by placing hand sanitiser in convenient locations.
- Make sure soap and water is freely available to employees, as well as to any third parties who may need to enter your place of work.
- Ensure your employees have access to face masks, and encourage social distancing of 1.5 to 2m between staff members wherever possible.
- Encourage any employees with cold symptoms, coughs or low-grade fevers to stay at home or work from home, rather than come into the office while sick.
In this way, you can help prevent contamination, and the potential spread of the virus between your employees, customers and suppliers.
South African government guidelines
When preparing your workplace for the prevention of COVID-19, it’s also worth bearing official South African gazetted guidelines in mind. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA):
- All employers are responsible for maintaining a safe, risk-free work environment
- All employers must ensure that employees remain safe, and are not exposed to any potential hazards that may compromise their health.
- All employers must take any and all necessary steps possible to eliminate potential hazards from the workplace.
In addition, there are also numerous procedures that need to be put into place, including administrative measures, social distancing, health and safety measures such as symptom screening, sanitisers and disinfectants, as well as the wearing of masks, public access, ventilation, PPE and more.