If Covid-19 becomes widespread in the community, companies can check temperatures using hand-held thermal scanners and consider excluding staff or visitors with temperatures over 100.4 F. For example, they should avoid public places and public transportation, and, ideally, should stay six feet away from others unless they are wearing a mask. Likewise, employees or visitors who are symptomatic or at high risk for Covid-19 should be kept separate from staff and helped with arrangements to leave the workplace and obtain medical evaluation while minimizing their public exposure. Given the threat this epidemic presents, managers shouldn’t hesitate to send employees who present with Covid-19 symptoms home. But dedicated staff often resist taking sick days, instead dragging themselves into work where they may infect others. When should we exclude workers or visitors from the workspace?Īs discussed, employees should stay home or go home if they have symptoms of coronavirus infection. In North America where Covid-19 is just starting to emerge, companies are being proactive: 70% have already or plan to increase communications, and more than half have or plan to increase access to hand sanitizers. Nearly 90% of surveyed companies there have increased employee access to hand sanitizers, and more than 80% have ramped up public health communications (such as posters about preventing spread) and are directing employees to work from home if they can. As might be expected, China is out ahead on this. (For more on employers’ role, see the CDC’s “Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers” here.)Ī just-completed Willis Towers Watson survey of 158 employers globally, over half of them multinational companies, found that most are implementing an array of actions to protect employees. Unless they’re delivering health care, there’s no need for organizations to stockpile face masks, as these are in short supply and the CDC doesn’t recommend their use by healthy people to protect against infection. Increased cleaning of common areas using standard cleaning agents can also reduce risk of spread of respiratory disease. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers and sanitizing wipes should be distributed throughout the workplace, and all frequently touched surfaces such as workstations, countertops and doorknobs should be routinely cleaned. Though that might be awkward at times, it’s an increasingly common practice in hospitals and clinics.Īs hand washing is one of the most effective defenses, employers need to make sure that employees have ready access to washing facilities and that those are kept well stocked with soap and (ideally) paper towels there is some evidence that paper towel drying is less likely to spread viruses than jet dryers. We would add that it’s sensible to avoid shaking hands entirely to reduce the risk of spreading infection. Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.Shield coughs and sneezes with a tissue, elbow, or shoulder (not the bare hands).Leave work if they develop these symptoms while at the workplace.Stay home if they have respiratory symptoms (coughing, sneezing, shortness of breath) and/or a temperature above 100.4 F.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that employees should: It may also be possible to become infected by touching a contaminated surface or object and then touching one’s nose or mouth. The coronavirus that causes Covid-19 (as the disease is called) is thought to spread largely through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing, and it seems to spread easily.
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How can we best protect our employees from exposure in the workplace? Here are eight questions that companies should ask as they prepare for - and respond to - the spread of the virus. This epidemic is a wake-up call for companies to carefully review the strategies, policies, and procedures they have in place to protect employees, customers, and operations in this and future epidemics. The human and economic impacts on businesses have been stark. Governments have shut borders and imposed quarantines, and companies have imposed travel bans.
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The coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China has sickened hundreds of thousands of people and thousands have died (click here for the latest data). To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter.
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