No one will get out of 2020 the same way they came in. This is especially true for businesses large and small. As organizations adapt to the new normal and figure out how to survive from day to day, organizational leaders are tasked with keeping an eye on what they can not foresee.
If you are deemed an essential business and still have employees and products to protect and ship in the midst of this worldwide pandemic, you require all of your team and your partners to adapt and shift with you. Your security team should not only play a large part in helping you adapt, they should be taking the lead in adjusting how you and your employees shift your operations.
Open Dialogue
We are in the middle of uncharted territory that changed our lives seemingly overnight. Understanding how your company and employees are affected only comes from having an open dialogue directly and immediately.
Your security team is a key partner to assisting you with short and long term solutions. Changes of the magnitude of COVID-19 has employers focusing on revenue retention and potentially shifting the way employees perform their job duties in order to keep the entire organization safe. Understanding the client environment well enough to provide immediate support is incredibly valuable along with making quick shifts that protect employees and revenue.
Lean on your security team to find opportunities to use their security protocol expertise to produce quick and impactful support. Keeping an open dialogue allows you, employees, and your security staff a more fluid approach moving forward.
Build a Plan
Businesses categorized as essential services may not have to worry about furloughing or letting go of employees, but they will have to shift their focus on new protocols that emphasize safety and security. The JS Security team built a plan for a large business of roughly 350 employees, managers, and administrative staff and vendors who were all deemed essential workers. We implemented changes to the following:
- Establishing visible social distancing floor markers and postings in key locations entering the business.
- Mandating the wearing of masks of all employees, managers, administrative personnel, vendors, and security personnel inside the building. Postings of mask requirements should be placed at all entry and exit doors. Since most businesses have their vendors or deliveries enter through a receiving or shipping area, having postings of mask and temperature reading requirements prior to entry into the building helps to add another layer of protection to your business.
- Establishing cleaning crew or in-house sanitation crews to clean and sanitize common areas such as breakrooms, cafeterias, and restrooms. Adding social distance markers and postings inside the break room, restrooms, cafeterias, and picnic areas. Ensuring employees have access to hand soap and/or hand sanitizer in these locations.
- Implementing temperature reader location(s) prior to the employees entering the work area. This helps your security staff or whomever reads employee temperatures identify those who may have a higher than normal temperature. Identifying individuals early helps ensure and reduce in-house exposure. This also helps promote employee safety, ensuring to its employees that the management officials care about the well being of its employees, and the spread of the virus.
- Providing gloves for the employees within the building when possible.
- Developing a sanitation crew for the interior of your workplace. The sole duty of these employees is to clean contact surface areas at the end of each shift. For larger warehouses, you may want to consider investing in a floor cleaner. Keeping a clean and dust free environment reduces or minimizes the removal of masks while at work and helps to prevent sneezing.
- Developing safety protocols and sanitation procedures for cleaning and proper disposal of bodily fluids or biohazards.
Security + Management + Flexibility = Partnership
The final and most important piece to a successful plan implementation occurs between you and the direct line management to the employees. Communication and implementation is going to be a vital part to the success of your business, or for some, staying in business. We recommend meeting with your security team as often as possible, or bringing in an outside expert to discuss ways to promote a safer work environment and look to establish a process that promotes a safe environment that increases production.
Looking for an experienced security company to partner with? Call JS Security Consulting at 615-201-8071 or contact our team today.