![]() Forty-five percent of employers in our survey reported using thermal scanning to identify employees with fevers and exclude them. ![]() The most important protection in the workplace is to effectively exclude those at highest risk of transmitting the disease. How can we protect employees who come to work? One option which can help avoid discrimination is for employers to simply allow employees to state they are uncomfortable returning to the workplace, without asking whether this is due to age, chronic disease, transportation concerns or child care. We also suggest that employees with children at home and who lack alternative child care, and employees for whom transport could pose a significant risk of exposure, should be encouraged to continue to work remotely if possible. We suggest that workers at highest risk for complications of Covid-19 - those over 60 and those who are obese, have chronic lung or heart disease, diabetes or kidney disease - remain remote where possible until the amount of community transmission is very low. Maintaining a partially remote workforce also facilitates stress-testing physical or workflow changes to minimize disruption as more employees return to the workplace over subsequent weeks and months. It’s best to have workers return gradually, which allows for lower density, making physical distancing less of a challenge. They will do well to prioritize opening workplaces where work cannot be sustainably performed remotely, where there is high demand for the workplaces’ output, and where redesigning the space to allow for physical (social) distancing requires few changes. ![]() The World Health Organization recommends that nonessential workers return when there is a sustained decrease in community transmission, a decreased rate of positive tests, sufficient testing available to detect new outbreaks, and adequate local hospital capacity to accommodate a surge of new cases should that occur.Ĭompanies should be prepared to adopt different timetables for different geographies depending on local circumstances. Employers now want to know when and how to bring many of their remote employees back. employers we completed in early April, 42% reported that the majority of their workforce could work remotely - compared to just 14% before the pandemic. When is the right time for employees to return?Īccording to a survey of 854 U.S. Here are eight questions they must now address. As always, employers must remain nimble, and play close attention to local conditions and changing guidelines and practices. Now, not quite three months later, infections exceed 5.5 million and employers face a whole new set of questions as they consider how to reopen the workplace after weeks or months of restrictions. In early March, when we published our HBR article “ 8 Questions Employers Should Ask About Coronavirus,” there were fewer than 100,000 cases and 4,000 deaths globally. To get all of HBR’s content delivered to your inbox, sign up for the Daily Alert newsletter. ![]() In these difficult times, we’ve made a number of our coronavirus articles free for all readers. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |