By Jason Braithwaite, General Manager BeSafe Training Ltd
How to get to Covid compliance in your workplace
Employers are obliged to make every effort to bring employees along on the journey
How do you overcome resistance to Covid-19 protocols on a construction site or manufacturing facility when they are not a normal part of your workplace culture and mindset, and when there is so much controversy around the subject?
Overcoming resistance and embedding Covid-19 protocols is made easier with BeSafe’s new health and safety training programme designed to give workers a formal set of skills around managing Covid risk – which is increasingly important as management grapples with a growing menu of workplace risks. How do you prioritise?
Managing a range of tasks in addition to existing health and safety processes means new Covid safety protocols are just one more worry. As a result, it is either a distraction that puts workers at risk from other hazards or the Covid protocols get neglected, and that’s not a great outcome either.
The Covid training programme from BeSafe Training is designed to help workers efficiently integrate the new pandemic protocols into their current suite of workplace health and safety skills and processes.
The modern workplace is overwhelmed with mandates from clients, the Government, insurance companies, and employees themselves. Not only does this causes safety and efficiency issues, but it also adds costs and time delays to a project.
Part of the Government mandates, indeed around Covid, is to demonstrate that you have done everything reasonable to bring your employee along on the journey, and that includes training employees and educating management.
If employees understand Covid better, what it does, how it is transmitted and best how to avoid it – which is needed to counter all the fake news and information overload – we will be in a better position to keep our workplaces safe.
Here are some suggestions on how bosses can better prepare staff for the pandemic affected worksite:
- Counter the misinformation
Facebook and other social media are riddled with misleading information. However, employers are in a position of trust and are therefore better positioned to inform their staff of the facts.
- Overcome information filters
Workers are at risk of information overwhelm, so the tendency is to filter out messages that are not deemed necessary.
Consider all the information that you need to communicate to staff and then balance the delivery of that information so that it is acknowledged and understood. A planned and deliberate programme of education can help ensure better engagement.
- Maintain awareness
Formal training and regular awareness activities – meetings, slogans, posters etc. – that communicate good quality information in a way that is relatable and meaningful is needed to ensure that Covid safety and awareness becomes an integral part of workplace culture.
