We’ve all seen the impact that COVID has been having on individuals and organisations around the globe, and as Australia starts to emerge from lockdown, now is the time for organisations to put measures in place to improve their resilience.

All predictions are that as lockdown eases, there will be an increase in case rates; and that there will be spot outbreaks as we’ve already observed to be the case with McDonald’s closing 12 Victorian outlets after they were all visited by an external truck driver who tested positive for COVID-19.

For most organisations, there are steps that you can take now to improve your resilience and reduce the impact if one of your team contracts COVID or comes into contact with someone who tests positive.

Team Structuring

Depending on the nature of your workforce, you should consider how teams can be structured to reduce the number of close contacts that each person has. In this way, if one of your staff members return a positive result, the smallest possible number of people will need to be isolated.

Is there a way that you can break your workforce into small teams that never work in the same space or come into face to face contact with each other?

If you run a service or trades business, can you have fixed teams that never work on the same sites? If you run a manufacturing or sales business, can you change rosters to reduce contact between staff members.

Remote working

Many businesses have been successful in transitioning to a remote working model. If you have been able to manage such a transition, you may want to continue this as much as possible. This could be done by having parts of the team come into the office on different days, or by keeping part of your workforce completely remote.

Social Distancing & Hygiene

Pretty much every adult is now well aware of how to maintain social distancing and good hygiene, but as we start to transition back to business, it is going to be easy to slip back into old habits.

Workplaces should consider what they can do to reinforce good social distancing habits. Some examples of this could include:

• Reducing face to face meetings
• Signage around the office areas
• Cancelling or modifying staff drinks
• Reconfiguring lunch rooms
• Ensuring adequate handwashing and hygiene facilities

Space management

After more than a decade of increases in the prevalence of open plan offices, we’re now in a position where many offices no longer provide the necessary social distancing for safe work in a post-COVID world.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Safe Six – Workplace Readiness Essentials provides some excellent guidance on how to prepare workspaces for bringing workers back with the steps being:

1. Prepare the Building
2. Prepare the Workforce
3. Control Access
4. Create a Social Distancing Plan
5. Reduce Touch Points & Increase Cleaning
6. Communicate for Confidence

Contact Management

One of the key controls as we emerge from lockdown is having robust contact management and tracing systems in place.

Depending on the nature of your business, can you reduce the number of visitors to your premises, or can you keep a record of all staff and visitors on site on any given day.

Make Use of Technology

Many businesses have technologies in place that can be used to assist in reducing the risk of COVID transmission. This can include people counting systems to manage the number of people in a space at any time, using access control system to limit numbers and maintain a log of who’s been in a space, and visitor management systems to track visitors to a premises.

The good news is that we will get through this.

It will take some time, and there will no doubt be spot outbreaks and other challenges along the way.

The more organisations can do to ensure that their employees, customers, and visitors are kept safe, the more likely they are to get through this in the best possible position.

If you would like assistance developing your COVIDsafe plan get in touch with us today.

Simon Pollak is a security professional with more than 25 years’ experience in physical and cyber security, smart buildings and automation systems. A licensed security consultant and CISSP, he holds a Masters of Cyber Security and a Masters of Business Administration (Technology).

Simon Pollak is the principal consultant at STSC

You can follow him at https://au.linkedin.com/in/simonpollak