Practical employee considerations

Employees

15 Mar

Written By Simona Hughes

Be clear on management roles and responsibilities
- Identify and agree which key staff will lead your response efforts, each supported by an alternative/back-up.
- Create a team or manager responsible for coordinating prevention efforts and communicating updates.
Agree your business priorities
- Determine whether your employee’s safety and well-being is more important than servicing your customers.
- Consider whether operating without typical resources would jeopardise quality and safety or create unintended consequences which are worse in the long term.
Provide clear communication to employees
- Agree and communicate the business position on:
  - how staff are to communicate regarding their situation
  - whether quarantine is recommended or imposed in certain circumstances
  - whether ‘working from home’ will be considered
  - how parents are to plan their work commitments around children that may not be going to school
- It is important that your business messaging is clear, consistent and current
Respond to employee fears of infection appropriately
- Many employees may be scared to come to work or use public transportation during this time for fear of infection.
- Its important to respond to your employee’s fears with empathy.
- Employees are only entitled to refuse to come to work if they believe that they are in imminent danger.
Respond quickly if an employee appears sick or presents other identified risk factors
- Do your research and understand the symptoms and guidelines recommended by health organisations.
- If an employee has tested positive for coronavirus, or is suspected to have coronavirus, employers should require that all employees who have been in contact with that employee self-quarantine for a 14-day period.
- Employers should inform fellow employees of their possible exposure to the coronavirus in the workplace but maintain confidentiality.
Perform routine environmental cleaning
- Routinely clean all frequently touched surfaces in the workplace such as workstations, countertops and doorknobs
Prepare to implement a ‘working from home’ policy
- According to health officials, one of the most effective ways to combat the spread of the coronavirus is to reduce the frequency, proximity and duration of contact between people.
- Consider implementing a policy for employees to effectively “work from home” to minimise their risk of exposure from public transport, crowded situations and being exposed to people in offices.
- This may involve providing employees with the technological resources to be able to perform their work from home including laptops, tablets, remove logins, cloud based software, secure logins etc.
- If employees can or must use personal electronic devices, consider whether any additional measures should be taken to safeguard the business property and confidential information
Consider virtual team meetings or conference calls
- Reduce face to face meetings where possible.
- Utilise technology to keep your team connected and to enable your business to continue.
- Technology resources such as Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, Office Teams, Asana, Slack etc. should be assessed and implemented as soon as possible.
Prepare for minimum staffing levels
- Staff shortages may be the primary challenge to maintaining business operations during this period.
- You should assess the minimum staffing levels required for each department to sustain necessary business functions and operations.
- Identify employees who have been cross-trained, or can most easily be trained now, to fill in for those functions.
- You may consider splitting employees into groups and have the groups rotate between working remotely and working in the office to reduce the number of employees that will be impacted.
Consider your business travel requirements
- Assess whether your business should place a temporary ban on planned travel and the business consequences this may have.
- Consider your business’s position and policy regarding employees that have recently travelled inter-state and international.
- Ensure appropriate health checks or quarantine processes are implemented. Or of 15 March 2020, the Australian government has imposed a 14 day self-quarantine for all travellers.
Consider requiring employees to inform you of any travel for personal reasons
- Request your employees to communicate their travel requirements
- Employees that have recently returned or who are planning travel in the shot-term should be consulted so you are aware of where they have been and where they plan to travel.
Consider your employees that are on migrant visas
- Review employee visa compliance and validity periods and speak to your employees that are required to leave the country in the short term.
Develop a HR action plan
- Develop a policy around how employees can utilise their personal and annual leave entitlements should they chose or be required to stay home.
- If employees can work from home, consider how to monitor their work hours and whether their work hours should be reduced.