While COVID-19 risks have compelled organisations move to working remotely and other alternatives, this article summarises how a standard occupational health and safety management system can also help them reduce the risks.
With risks of COVID-19 spread across the world, organisations have resorted to remote working systems or so called ‘work for home’. However, with everything slowly returning to normal following the vaccination drive everywhere, organisations now need to think of ways to start operating in the usual manner but with assurance of workers’ health safety. ISO 45001 which is the internationally accepted standard for occupational health and safety management systems has now become a significant necessity for organisations of every type and size.
The standard helps in implementation of best health and safety practices under a management system that protects the wellbeing of workers, so with the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, achieving the standard requires you to bring forth practices that are useful to prevent infection risks at the workplace.
Here are ways the ISO 45001 standard for OHS (occupational health and safety) can help you to ensure your workers’ health safety amidst the COVID-19 fear.
Know the Gaps in your OHS Management System
Without such a global pandemic outbreak, no organisation could have realised that their OHS management system needed to be prepared to fight a rapid disease/infection spread. Now with the COVID-19 scenario in place, it is necessary for you to identify the gaps in your OHS management regarding your resources, health safety policies or practices, and staff competence. For instance, your organisation needs to adopt regular sanitisation or cleanliness routines to maintain surface hygiene and prevent contamination. You also should mandate the health screening of workers (body temperature, oxygen level, etc) frequently to know if anyone is infected or not. Other safety practices that were earlier not needed but became obligatory are use of masks, gloves, or face shields, mostly for workers who are in the frontline who need to interact with customers/outside agents daily.
Employee Training and Awareness
The number one concern of your OHS management is training every employee and making them aware of safety measures, hygiene or cleanliness maintenance, and the use of safety kits. When you have ISO 45001 certification to maintain, make sure you initiate the training program for all of your employees irrespective of their work processes or departments. You should coach them on COVID-19 prevention policies as issued by the WHO (World Health Organisation) and local health authorities.
Apart from safety practices, employees should also be trained on new working methods (remote working, online conferences, user access policies, and cybersecurity needs) and flexible working schedules. It is necessary to keep them all prepared and comfortable for remote work in case of a similar crisis arises in the future.
In short, training of the workers not only helps to keep them safe but also ensures that productivity is less likely to be interrupted by any situation because workers are equipped to work both on-site and off-site with utmost efficiency.
Take COVID-19 as an Opportunity to Improve
The recent situation of COVID-19 pandemic has made aware that many businesses are truly not prepared to face the risks of a pandemic outbreak. There were many cases last year when companies were shut down temporarily because they were unable to get the necessary resources, including staff, to continue operations and cope with the lockdown situation. If they had a robust OHS management system in place, they could have been able to adapt to the situation with emergency measures. They could have continued working while assuring workers’ health safety at the same time.
Conclusion
The world is going through an unprecedented time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It made organisations recognise the need for pandemic preparedness with an effective health and safety management system. Organisations that have the ISO 45001 certification or ones that do not have it now need to update or implement an OHS management system respectively to make sure that they are ready to face any health crisis and can run operations smoothly.
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