Dear Member

 

STOP PRESS

 

Whilst not the official Government position, a leak today has given some indication of the shape of its likely guidance on what businesses might need to put in place in various settings. Can I emphasise again that this is not official and is for your information only. 

 

General guidance for all workplaces

 

• Staggering arrival / departure times to reduce crowding in and out
• Providing additional parking or bike-racks
• Reducing congestion, for example by having more entry points to the workplace.
• One for entering the building and one for exiting if possible
• Handwashing or hand sanitation at entry and exit points
• Alternatives to touch-based security devices such as keypads
• Storage for staff clothes and bags
• Staff to change into work uniforms on site using appropriate facilities/changing areas
• Washing uniforms on site rather than at home
• Discouraging non-essential trips within buildings and sites
• Reducing job and location rotation, for example, assigning employees to specific floors
• Introducing more one-way flow routes through buildings
• Reducing maximum occupancy for lifts, providing hand sanitiser for the operation of lifts and encouraging use of stairs
• Regulating use of corridors, lifts and staircases
• Reviewing layouts to allow staff to work further apart from each other
• Using floor tape or paint to mark areas to help staff maintain 2m
• Avoiding employees working face-to-face. Working side-by-side or facing away from each other where possible
• Using screens to create a physical barrier between people where appropriate
• Staggering break times to reduce pressure on the break rooms, using outside areas for breaks
• Using protective screening for staff in receptions or similar areas
• Reconfiguring seating and tables to maintain spacing and reduce face-to-face interactions
• Providing packaged meals or similar to avoid opening staff canteens

 

Hotels and restaurants

 

• Bar areas must be closed
• Seated restaurants and cafés must be closed
• All food and drink outlets to serve takeaways only
• Allowing access to as few people as possible into kitchens
• Minimising interaction between kitchen workers and other workers
• Putting teams into shifts to restrict the number of employees interacting
• Spacing workstations 2m apart as much as possible
• Minimising access to walk-in pantries, fridges and freezers, with likely only one person being able to access these areas at one point in time.
• Minimising contact at “handover” points with other staff, such as when presenting food to serving staff and delivery drivers
• Hand sanitiser for visitors
• Avoid crowded reception areas, staggering check-in and check-out times
• Carrying out contractor services at night
• Considering room occupancy levels to maintain social distancing, especially in dormitories
• Minimising contact between kitchen and food preparation workers and delivery drivers
• Using front of house staff to serve customers in walk-in takeaways, with tills 2m away from the kitchen and ideally separated by a wall or partition.
• Creating a physical barrier between front of house workers and customers
• Using contactless card payments
• Limiting access to premises for people waiting for takeaways. Asking customers to wait in their cars
• Asking customers to order online, on apps or over the telephone

 

Workers in other people’s homes

 

• Discussing with households ahead of a visit to ask that a 2 metre distance is kept
• Asking that households leave all internal doors open
• Identifying busy areas across the household where people travel to, from or through, for example, stairs and corridors
• Limiting the time spent in close proximity to no more than 15 minutes.
• Bringing your own food and drink to households
• Limiting the number of workers within a confined space
• Using a consistent pairing system if people have to work in close proximity
• Allocating the same workers to a household where jobs are repetitive
• Where multiple workers are in a home, creating fixed teams of workers who carry out their duties in those teams
• Identifying areas where people need to hand things to each other and find ways to remove direct contact
• Allocating the same worker to the same household each time there is a visit, eg cleaners
• Using electronic payment methods and electronically signed and exchanged documents.

 

Factories and warehouses

 

• Ask for who it is essential to be on site. Office staff should stay home
• Planning for the minimum number of people needed on site
• Providing equipment for employees to work from home safely and effectively, for example laptops
• Servicing and adjusting ventilation systems
• Frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment
• Frequent cleaning and disinfecting of objects and surfaces
• Clearing workspaces and removing waste at the end of a shift
• Cleaning procedures for equipment, tools and vehicles after each shift and after each use of shared equipment, for example pallet trucks and forklift trucks
• Hand sanitiser for employees to use boarding vehicles or handling deliveries
• Regular cleaning of reusable delivery boxes

 

Shops and branches

 

• Defining the number of customers that can follow 2m social distancing within the store
• Taking into account total floorspace as well as likely pinch points and busy areas
• Limiting the number of customers at any one time
• Suspending or reducing some customer services
• Encouraging customers to shop alone
• Informing customers who are accompanied by children that they are responsible for supervising them at all times
• Using outside premises for queuing
• Communicating with nearby premises to manage shared queueing areas
• Shopping centres should take responsibility for regulating the number of customers in the centre
• Continuing to keep customer restaurants and/or cafes closed until further notice, unless offering hot or cold food to be consumed off the premises
• Providing clear guidance to people on arrival
• Creating social distancing “champions” to demonstrate social distancing guidelines to customers
• Staggered collection times for customers collecting items
• Setting up ‘no contact’ return procedures
• Cashless refunds
• Keeping returns separate from displayed merchandise

 

Offices

 

• Office staff should work from home if at all possible.
• Employees in roles critical for business can go in
• Employees who cannot work from home due to home circumstances can go in
• Planning for the minimum number of people needed on site
• Monitoring the well-being of employees who are working from home
• Keeping in touch with off-site employees including welfare, mental and physical health and personal security
• Review layouts, line set-ups or processes to let employees work further apart
• Arranging for employees to work side-by-side or facing away from each other
• Screens to create a physical barrier between people
• Floor tape or paint to mark areas to help employees keep to a 2m distance
• Avoiding use of hot desks and spaces
• Limiting use of high-touch items and shared office equipment
• Using remote working tools, to avoid in-person meetings.
• Avoiding transmission during meetings, avoiding sharing pens
• Only necessary participants should attend meetings
• Hand sanitiser in meeting rooms
• Holding meetings in well ventilated rooms
• Limiting or restricting occupancy in group interaction spaces
• For areas where regular meetings take place, using floor signage to help people maintain social distancing

 

Working outdoors

 

• Only workers deemed necessary to carry out physical work or supervision should physically attend
• Changing layouts to let workers work further apart
• Using screens to separate people from each other
• Using a consistent pairing system if people have to work in close proximity
• Avoiding employees working face-to-face. For example, by working side-by-side or facing away from each other

 

Working in a vehicle

 

• Reducing the number of employees at base depots or distribution centres at a given time
• Scheduling times for the collection of goods
• Loading onto vehicles without interacting with driver
• Reducing job / location rotation.
• Finding alternative solutions to two-person delivery
• Minimising the contact during payments and exchange of documentation
• Single person / contactless refuelling where possible.
• Physical screening if safe
• Using a fixed pairing system if people have to work in close proximity
• Making sure vehicles are well ventilated
• Ensure regular cleaning of vehicles
• Using non-contact deliveries wherever possible.
• Scheduling to limit exposure to large crowds and rush hours
• Revising pick-up and drop-off collection points
• Non-contact deliveries where the nature of the product allows
• Maximising use of electronic paperwork.

 

Kind regards

John