Feeling unsafe about a return to the office?

Employee health and safety should always be of paramount importance, pandemic or no pandemic, but there’s no denying that Covid-19 has shifted the goalposts. “Risk” now means something else entirely, and as a result the way people work may have changed irrevocably as a result.

Jack Nolan is managing director of Cruinn Diagnostics, which provides essential products and services to the HSE and the private hospital sector. They’ve stayed in operation throughout the entire pandemic: “This is undoubtedly down to every single person in the company who went the extra mile so we could stay 100 per cent operational,” says Nolan.

Indeed, they had to make several adjustments to ensure employees could continue to work safely, and Nolan says these were done with their full support and compliance. Office-based staff in administration roles, such as accounts, marketing and customer service etc, were set up to work remotely from home and continue to do so. This allowed Cruinn to utilise the extra office space to ensure that remaining essential office staff could work in single occupancy offices – another shift that will be permanent.

“For our warehouse and logistics staff where it is more difficult to maintain complete social distancing, we introduced two work shifts, with two teams split between a 7am to 1.30pm and a 2pm to 8.30pm shift,” says Nolan, adding that all areas are cleaned and disinfected between shifts. Temperature checks are now essential and outside visitors are kept to the bare minimum.

Reviewed

All measures are being constantly reviewed to take into account both case numbers and the resultant levels of restrictions as determined by the Government, Nolan says. Since the new Level 5-plus restrictions were introduced in early January, Cruinn has partnered with HealthWatch Limited to provide weekly serial PCR testing of all office-based staff.

Although forced to down tools at various points, construction has been one of the industries that has fought hard to remain open by adapting work practices to the new Covid reality. Sean Fitzpatrick, director of human resources at John Sisk & Son, says health and safety was already such an integral part of the construction business that the new regulations were easily implemented.

“Health and safety of our people is core to us at Sisk and across the construction business. We have well established ways of keeping people safe so when Covid became an issue we were quickly able to mobilise and address the challenges.

“We came together very early and very quickly as an industry and developed a new set of rules and procedures and a suite of online training tools under the umbrella of the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) to ensure people know how to keep distance on sites and in offices and follow all the required guidelines.”

Temperature checks

Sites and offices instigated temperature checks, constant wipe downs, and compulsory mask wearing “long before it was discussed publicly”, as well as one-way systems, socially distanced canteens and a range of other measures to keep people safe, Fitzpatrick explains.

“We engaged all the stakeholders and were able to return to work pretty quickly after the initial lockdown last year. We have kept our people safe since then and have a low incidence rate.”

These safety measures are continually being refined as new evidence emerges and the epidemiological situation evolves, he adds.

“Strict enforcement and ongoing education and training go hand in hand on sites. We manage a range of subcontractors and we are ensuring everyone knows what they have to do and has the tools to do it, so we have built it into the way we work.” He also sees the enhanced safety measures as being a good thing in the long-term. “How we manage people and materials on our sites has come under intense scrutiny as a result and again I think this is a positive as it will lead to better and safer processes for all.”

It is key that we understand what works for employees and we are very mindful of the stress of this time and impact on mental health

Inevitably, certain aspects of these changed work practices will become permanent, Nolan says.

“We believe we have learned from the experience and inevitably working remotely will become an integral part of the future landscape for most organisations. The new normal most likely will be a blend of what we used to do and what we do now, hopefully maximising efficiency and effectiveness of our teams and dispensing with activities that do not add value.” The company has learned a lot from this difficult period. “The Covid experience and the great people we have convinces us that whatever issue arises in the longer term we have the capability to adapt and continue to grow as people and a company.”

Flexibility

Like Nolan, Fitzpatrick agrees that the flexibility of working from home is here to stay “in some capacity” for office-based staff. “That is a positive legacy if it means people have a better work-life balance.”

Indeed, for both employee physical and mental health is top of the agenda. “We are talking to our people and listening to them all the time. It is key that we understand what works for them and we are very mindful of the stress of this time and impact on mental health. We have had a long-term commitment to supporting our people and this will continue to be the case and I think the discussions we now have about mental health and wellbeing are much better informed because everyone understands the challenges now.”