Author: Soumi Eachempati, MD, FACS, FCCM, Co-founder and CEO of Cleared4® and Chelsea Health Solutions.
Flexibility and resilience have been tremendous assets to businesses over the past several months, as the COVID-19 pandemic has pressed employers to think strategically and creatively about how to keep the wheels turning while concurrently protecting their employees’ health and well-being. Work-from-home and hybrid arrangements have become the norm for many companies, while other employers have needed to put careful measures into place to protect their essential on-site teams.
With vaccination schedules on the horizon, an increasing number of business leaders are making plans to bring employees back into the workplace to regain their vision of “normal.” Whether the new normal will be a true return to the way workflow proceeded in the past or part of an evolutionary step toward a new model, a variety of new considerations will need to take place.
Following are five actions business leaders can take to protect and support their workforce:
- Respect the Virus
Even as the vaccine begins to be administered and employees return to the workplace, the current COVID-19 pandemic is raging on. Months will go by before a broad enough swath of Americans are immunized to achieve herd immunity, and so employers must continue enforcing social-distancing, masking and hand-washing measures, along with the standard modalities of surveillance testing, symptom monitoring and contact tracing. Notably, this task may become even more challenging as more individuals receive the vaccination and an unfounded sense of invulnerability results.
Keeping this focus on the potential danger of the vaccine will be a tall order for business leaders, but well worth the effort and expenditure when the result is a healthy, productive workforce. Convincing that workforce to understand the need for these measures and to cooperate fully may be a larger challenge, as COVID fatigue has set in and so many are impatient to see the world revert to the old business model.
- Manufacturing Leaders: Know Your Specific Vulnerabilities
Manufacturing environments may pose additional challenges for employers, because certain working conditions contribute to a higher potential for disease transmission. The etiologies of the higher risk for transmission may include the following:
- Onsite working may be more necessary in the manufacturing sector as opposed to other industries as a remote model may be more impractical.
- People may tend to work in closer proximity to one another than workers in office settings do, and social distancing may not be always possible.
- More commingling may be required in the course of employees’ work responsibilities as there are less options for plexiglass barriers, private cubicles, and enclosed offices.
- Employees whose jobs include physical exertion may be less likely to wear masks yet present a higher transmission risk due to heavy breathing and sweating.
Additionally, workers in manufacturing, construction or other industries who are paid hourly with little or no sick time may be more likely than salaried workers to minimize or deny having COVID-like symptoms. Though they may want to comply with the overall safety protocols, they may feel obligated to work to support themselves and their families.
- Prioritize Testing, Tracing and Symptom Monitoring
Central to keeping employees safe are surveillance testing, contact tracing and symptom monitoring. It is essential to have public health-based protocols in place for each of these vital measures with full documentation of all efforts and results.
Symptom monitoring should optimally include a daily check-in, with a temperature check and self-reporting on any symptoms. Surveillance testing should be conducted on a regular basis predicated on the risk of the community transmission of Covid-19 and the potential corporate risk of an individual becoming afflicted. Contract tracing should be done any time an employee tests positive for COVID-19. In some locales this practice is or will be mandated by law (see California 685). Questions that must be answered in these circumstances include who have been in proximity with those testing positive for Covid-19 victims and who else may have been exposed for any reason.
Employers should regard testing, tracing and monitoring to be the current costs of doing business. This pandemic will not last forever, but this investment in employee well-being and maintaining a sound corporate brand will yield dividends well into the future.
- Know How to Navigate the Vaccine
The emergence of more vaccinated individuals will bring its own set of standards. It will be critical to keep track of who has been vaccinated and who has not as this distinction may create major staffing considerations. This may not be an easy lift as employers will also need to monitor which individuals have received only the first part of a mandatory two-shot vaccine.
Importantly, until public guidance states otherwise, vaccinated individuals will have to continue mask-wearing, distancing, and symptom monitoring to some extent, as the vaccine may not prevent recipients from transmitting the virus to others. Although it may seem counterintuitive that vaccinated individuals may still need to be tested, they may still need to be for some length of time (albeit on a different schedule from unvaccinated employees).
There will be other vaccine-related challenges as well. Some employees may miss work after inoculation due to side effects. Consequently, employers may want to strategically determine which order to vaccinate their employees to avoid multiple individuals in the same sector to miss work concurrently. There will also be certain individuals who cannot receive the vaccine. Some employees with severe allergies or other disqualifying conditions may not be able to receive the vaccine at all. The vaccine has not been approved for pregnant individuals. Other employees may refuse to take the vaccine. All these employees may need to be more carefully monitored for Covid-19 and have more frequent testing.
- Avoid These Mistakes (and Potential Lawsuits)
Employers must keep open lines of communication with all employees, especially during this sensitive time. They must remember that coworkers and employees may be struggling with innumerable challenges outside the workplace (e.g. more educational responsibilities for their children, commuting issues, ill family members, etc.) as well as emotional challenges related to isolation or other pandemic-related fears. Corporate leaders and human resources executives will have to display extreme patience and empathy in demonstrating why everyone must comply with safety and documentation protocols.
About the Author
Soumi Eachempati, MD, FACS, FCCM is Co-founder and CEO of Cleared4® and Chelsea Health Solutions. Cleared4 develops innovative solutions to help companies, schools, stadiums, and other communities deal with the pandemic crisis. Dr. Eachempati was a former Professor of Surgery and Public Health at Weill Cornell Medical College and the former Chief of Trauma and Director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He volunteered in the ICU at Weill Cornell Medical Center last April during the worst of the Covid-19 crisis in New York City.