Tips for Minimizing Your Employees’ Risk of Getting Sick at Work

As employees return to work, it’s important to take steps to prevent the spread of illness. If you do nothing, you could risk having a large number of employees come down with a serious illness, which will result in a major disruption to your business operations. That’s why it’s important to take common-sense steps to keep your employees healthy while they’re at the office. To help you get it right the first time, here are a few tips for minimizing your employees’ risk of getting sick at work.

Keep Employees Separated

One proven way to limit the spread of germs between employees is to keep them separated from one another. If your facility is large enough, putting physical distance between your employees is the best way to carry this out. However, if you can’t put distance between your employees, then you need to put barriers between them to catch as many germs as possible. Though this can reduce collaboration, it’s far better than having multiple employees become sick.

Disinfect Regularly

Though you can’t follow each of your employees around with disinfectant spray, you should try to disinfect commonly touched surfaces as frequently as possible. Regular disinfecting throughout the day will help limit the spread of germs until coronavirus disinfection services can come in and sanitize the entire office. It’s a good idea to designate a single employee to be responsible for this action throughout the day to ensure that it gets done as often as it should.

Put Rules in Place

Employees who could potentially be ill may still come into the office if there aren’t clear rules in place. That’s why you need to set up some boundaries and guidelines for everyone to follow so that employees know exactly when they should and shouldn’t come into work. Include in the rules specific measurements for fevers, as well as how long a person should wait after symptoms subside before returning to the office. You can also include contact numbers in these instructions in case someone has a question about a gray area.

Don’t Make it a Burden

If you’re going to have rules in place that prevent people from working when they’re sick, then it’s important that you don’t take this time off burdensome to the individuals who are ill. In other words, if someone does the responsible thing by staying home when they’re not feeling well, don’t punish them by overwhelming them with work the moment they return or threatening them with a pay cut because of their absence. If employees know that they will be supported during their time off, they will be far more likely to comply with the rules.

The best way to keep your employees healthy is to make sure you’re following all of the above tips yourself. If you feel sick, don’t try to be a hero and come into the office. Instead, show your employees that you mean what you say and stay home until you feel better. If your employees can be inspired by their leader, everyone will be able to work together to stay healthy.