The media is ablaze with news of the R number and second waves, local lockdowns and the impact of our kids going back to school. It seems that we have a virtually unlimited appetite for keeping ourselves in a perpetual state of anxiety over the ongoing coronavirus problem. However, after around six months of disruption, many in business are straining at the leash to reopen their offices in some form, even if in a blended fashion of office and homeworking. Government guidance has allowed for it and provides some advice on how to achieve it, but there are a number of issues every organisation looking to return their staff to work will face.

1. Compliance
   This comes in a number of forms. Firstly there is the issue of compliance with the government’s guidelines, which can be found at www.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-reopening. Employers can get direction from the gov.uk site, but must be aware that employees can also use this to hold their employers to account should proper risk assessments not be carried out and protective measures implemented. Guidance may also be provided by local authorities, industry governing bodies and unions. Complexities ensue where some feel measures are not strict enough and others struggle to adapt work spaces and staff practices to comply.
2. Confidence
   Many people will be nervous to return to the workplace, or when in the office they may become fearful that not enough has been put in place to protect them. This can affect productivity, the relationship between employee and employer, and it could even trigger retention issues as key staff find other employers who more visibly evidence their commitment to workforce wellbeing.
3. Consistency
   Social distancing, good hand hygiene and the ‘catch it, bin it, kill it’ campaign may be top of people’s minds when they first return to work, but as everyone starts to feel more comfortable, as they get back to some form of ‘normality’, it’s inevitable that standards will slip. If you are going to protect your organisation from Covid-closures in the future, those standards must remain high in the medium to long term.
4. Closure
   You’ve worked so hard to protect your business, to look after your staff and to prepare your office environment for their return, but should a single member of your workforce fall ill with Covid-19 symptoms, what will you do? Without knowing who they came into contact with and when, with any accuracy, you’ll have no alternative but to close the company doors again. Given that experts tell us that the virus is likely to be with us for a while, this may happen time and again, and each time it does the disruption, staff anxiety and customer frustration at delays will ramp up all the more.

SafeLite is an integrated hi-tech solution to address compliance matters, staff anxiety, and the ongoing maintenance of virus protection standards. It also answers the question of ‘what now?’ should a member of your staff fall ill.

SafeLite utilises a combination of wearable and static technologies to facilitate a safe return, or escalation of return, to work.

Wearable alerts
Tiny devices, allocated and registered to individual staff members, small enough to clip on lanyards or ID cards, offer an audible and visible (flashing light) warning should pre-set proximity boundaries between staff members be breached. They provide peace of mind for those that know that others out there might not take the risks as seriously as they do, and they provide a gentle reminder of the rules that keep them safe to those who forget them once in a while.

Gathering monitoring
Static devices placed in locations throughout your office will watch out for people gathering in larger than allowed numbers and will track staff members in their movement throughout the office.

Reporting and action
All breaches, recorded from both wearable and static devices, are transmitted to a central hub, from which data can be extracted at any point via an intuitive portal. In this way,

• individuals who breach social distancing guidelines can be spoken with,
• repeat offenders can be warned,
• those who gather in larger numbers can be advised against doing so, and
• the movements of any staff member who comes down with Covid-19 symptoms can be rapidly traced and tracked so all at-risk individuals can be asked to quarantine.

Consequently, any risk of a company-wide closure is reduced as targeted individuals taken out of office circulation could well remove the need for others having to return to working from home.

The speed and accuracy of the SafeLite system in deterring social distancing breaches, identifying where they occur and locating all staff who have been in close proximity to an infected person, will provide compliance, confidence, consistency and prevent against closures while we all make our way through the Covid-19 crisis.

To find out more about SafeLite and the solution it offers to getting your staff back to work safely, contact us today on 020 7704 5800 or email info@consultingprofessionals.co.uk