Businesses need to be encouraged to give employees more space, more personal equipment and more opportunities to wash their hands in order to minimize the impacts of a possible pandemic.
Businesses should not react but should already be developing a plan of action. If a pandemic erupts, employers must be ready to reduce interaction between workers to try to stop disease from spreading. There’s a lot of equipment which is used in most workplaces which is typically shared, be it manufacturing equipment, computers, tools, or telephones. As much as possible, the sharing of equipment should be minimized.
Viruses on hard surfaces can survive up to 48 hours, possibly infecting anyone else who touches the surface during that time.
Installing hand-washing stations, removing commonly used water fountains and giving employees enough workspace so that they are not subjected to the sneezes of adjacent colleagues are also key. Even in conference rooms and lunch areas, workers should be able to keep at least one metre away from anyone else – the estimated distance a sneeze or cough-propelled droplet of virus can travel.
These suggestions are not only geared toward pandemics, they can also reduce the transmission of the regular kind of flu that goes through workplaces every year.
While no one can predict when the next pandemic might break out, experts feel it is only a matter of time. If a pandemic erupts, businesses can expect up to a quarter of their workforce to be absent on any given day. Some workers will be ill while others will stay home to tend to relatives or because they fear catching the disease. There are usually about three pandemics a century – the most severe of the 20th century was the 1918 Spanish flu.
Business leaders have been looking for ways to ensure their enterprises can continue to function if a pandemic erupts, but warn that small companies may not be able to offer their employees dedicated equipment and separate work spaces.
Having employees wipe down hard surfaces such as, telephones, doorknobs, keyboards etc with products like ACCEL TB Spray and wipes would be helpful and ensure best practices of healthy workplaces.