2020 has been a difficult year for most organizations. As the pandemic persists with no known end in sight, countries are trying to minimize the propagation of this virus by enforcing health and safety precautions. The country’s only chance for economic survival is to follow government guidelines and have non-essential businesses resume operations with potential health risks.
Biological risk is now the most prevalent risk to manage in workplaces and is tackled using the effective risk assessment process. A hierarchy of health and safety controls needs to be taken so that operations can resume. The burden to manage these processes and controls for each person present on-site has become a reality.
Client corporations are starting to understand ways to reduce this risk for their contractors and employees, by implementing health and safety measures such as remote work, increased ventilation, touchless technology, disinfection schedules and mandatory personal protective equipment.
Expectations and requirements are changing daily; communication with all key stakeholders needs to bring agility and reach as contractors and employees are working remotely and communicating by video conference. Organizations are gathering management teams as they feel pressured to make quick decisions during these uncertain times. These unsettling feelings will persist until a vaccine is created.
Adapting to the return to work is a challenge for both contractors and employees. Travel restrictions are limiting available workforce. Over the past few months, borders have been closed, and contractors are no longer able to freely travel to their employer’s site. It has forced organizations to self-evaluate and worry that their regular workforce will be unavailable, thus eventually decreasing production. Client corporations are hiring locally and attempting to strengthen their available contractors’ competencies to ensure that production can continue efficiently. In addition to the fact that contractors and employees will need to be screened for potential COVID-19 transmission risk and trained on the government mandated health and safety regulations prior to presenting themselves on-site, organizations are adding tasks to their workload to diversify their certifications and develop their skill set. The need to be multifaceted in the workplace is stronger than ever.
During this pandemic, mental illness struggles have become a widespread obstacle, and organizations are allocating resources to help reduce the stress and anxiety felt by their contractors and employees. They acknowledge that workers may be scared to re-enter a worksite in fear of contracting COVID-19 and are rushing to implement programs and more extensive benefit packages to help combat these stressors.
Cognibox’s mission is to help organizations reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19 in the workplace. In creating CogniSafe, Cognibox is providing training on best practices, screening resources and a daily checklist of necessary tasks for preparing to return to work and managing the workplace, as well as a daily health screening of COVID-19 related symptoms to help minimize the risk of virus propagation on-site. As the pandemic rages on, all any organization can do is to keep informed and follow government regulations until the curve has been flattened and a proper vaccine is approved and circulated.
