HR and Health & Safety advice for post-COVID return to work
We are all thinking about the return to work, and how to manage it safely, and potentially with less income and fewer employees. It is a fluid situation and bit by bit guidance is emerging from the Scottish Government as to how specific sectors can re-open.
In the meantime, we’ll explore the health and safety measures and HR measures which all hospitality businesses should be looking at.
Be wary of COVID-19 health and safety dismissals
Before we look at the types of plan you may make, it’s important to stress that you must get your employees’ buy-in to your health and safety solutions. This will be done through good plans and good communication.
Employment tribunals relating to disputes over an employee feeling in imminent danger have not been common. Industry hazards and mitigations are normally well established in a developed economy like ours. But for the foreseeable future, it may be entirely reasonable for an employee to feel endangered by even showing up at work. And in these cases, it is the employee’s belief that counts, not your opinion. Hence, why you need their buy-in.
The steer from the Health and Safety Executive
As you would imagine, the HSE is aligned with what Public Health Scotland are prescribing. In the workplace this means social distancing to a two metre minimum where possible, and frequent, thorough hand washing. And if anyone displays symptoms of COVID-19 they should self-isolate in line with the public health guidance.
Contact tracing is not a wider government policy. But it would be good practice in a work setting to notify people after they have been in contact with someone who is diagnosed or self-isolating, that a team-member is affected in this way. Don’t break GDPR rules by divulging personal information though.
As we said earlier, the government will roll out more detailed guidance. But for now, the above should be the starting point for developing your procedures.
What does this mean for hospitality?
You’ll need to apply these guiding principles to your own organisation appropriately. There are conflicting stories about PPE like face masks, but this is another area that any organisations in any industry may wish to consider.
Cafes, restaurants and bars
Hygiene will be a high priority, but it always is. So such businesses should be well placed to develop policies which take COVID-19 into consideration, although there will be new areas to cover such as payment processes, toilets and hygiene stations. What will be more of a challenge is managing social distancing, both between staff and for customers. Front and back of house may need a redesign, with consideration given to screens, floor markings and flow throughs.
Hotels and B & Bs
Many establishments also have F & B provision, so will need to think about everything that a café, restaurant or bar would have to. But in addition, there will be issues about occupancy levels and rest time to consider. We await further guidance on this at the time of writing.
Get professional H&S plans in place
Each sector will have its own challenges, but with good planning there will be procedures that can be put in place to get trade going again. Some sectors will face even more challenges, particularly where close contact is unavoidable like eyecare and hair salons.
If you want to be ready to open for business again as soon as possible, get in touch with us to conduct a detailed risk assessment and put in place plans to keep staff and customers as safe as practicable.
Before employees come back to work
What should be on your radar before bringing employees back to work? For starters, we would advise that you consider the following:
If your business is permitted a phased return, how will you manage this? Who will you bring back from furlough and when? Remember that a period of furlough must be for a minimum of three weeks in order to claim.
Have core business operations permanently changed because of coronavirus? Do job roles need to be updated?
Will there be enough work for everyone? If you need to consider a workforce restructure or make redundancies, there are important processes and timelines to think about.
How to bring employees back from furlough
You may be eager to reopen doors and get back to business. But after time in isolation, furloughed employees may be apprehensive about returning to work, especially surrounding health and safety.
The best thing you can do is communicate with employees in advance to let them know the results of your risk assessment and the steps you are taking to prepare the business for their return. This should help to ease any day one concerns and allow a much-needed focus on the return to work.
Additionally, you should aim to give employees notice, in writing, regarding their return to work. This can help them to mentally prepare for their change in circumstance and allow them to bring any concerns to your attention.
For example, blended learning for schools will mean that the working parents of your workforce may need to request flexible working to balance childcare commitments. You will want to be aware of this in advance so that you can manage attendance and shift patterns effectively.
Aftercare is another important part of the agenda for bringing employees back from furlough. Through 1-2-1s you can monitor how employees are coping post lockdown and provide support where necessary.
Some of our clients in hospitality have already un-furloughed employees. We have been through the un-furloughing process with them and continue to provide support as and when needed to help navigate a return to work after furlough.
This advice was supplied by HR Dept Edinburgh & The Lothians
