The way in which we work has changed dramatically over the course of 2020. Once lockdown was over in the UK, it was time for most people to at least attempt to get back to work and for employees to ensure that they were ‘Covid-19 ready’. If you own or manage a business and are looking at the best way to help your employees return to work in a safe manner, it is vital that you leave no stone unturned. Hiring the services of a professional company to undertake a workplace health and safety inspection for Covid-19 will give you all of the information you need to make the relevant changes and your workplace as safe as possible under the new climate of the pandemic.

It is vital that business owners have a real understanding of the fears their employees will have over returning to work during the pandemic. Until there is a vaccine available worldwide, it is difficult to envisage any industry returning to how it was back at the beginning of 2020. Until then, we must all suck it up, make necessary changes and be as ready as possible to work in a different way in order to keep our employees and customers as safe as possible.

Planning is an important part of every section of a business. With a pandemic and the dangers of the spread of Covid-19 in confined spaces, and the need for greater distance, PPE and barriers between employees in certain situations. An extensive risk assessment for any workplace looking to reopen after Covid-19 restrictions should be seen as an effective way to get employees back to work in the safest way possible and where they feel comfortable coming back to work.

It is important that you implement a strategy of return to the workplace that works well not only for the company, but for the mental wellbeing of your employees, as that is what is most important at this time. Specialist occupational safety and health professionals understand the different risks that are to be investigated in different workplaces. Usually this would focus on fire safety risks and management, manual handling, hazardous substances and their control and display screen equipment where needed.

Now, there is a need to incorporate Covid-19 planning into these risk assessments. Involve your employees and ask them what they would like to see in order to feel safe when returning to work. Covid-compliance is so important in all workplaces to get the economy back working in a way where employees feel safe and able to be effective.

As we have seen already over the last few weeks, the different tiers of lockdown that are being implemented in England, and the full lockdown measures for a short period of time in other parts of the UK, has dramatically changed the way in which we all work. Not knowing how and when we can open certain places and to work, means that we are all in some sort of halfway house. What we can do, as business owners and those responsible for managing employees, is to be as prepared as possible for being a safe place for employees, and this is where a full workplace health and safety Covid-19 inspection can stand you in good stead. If you are a restaurant currently closed because of Covid-19, get ready for when you can reopen.