As the premier consultant of member-owned group captives, Captive Resources (CRI) is committed to helping the member-companies we work with improve and maintain workplace safety. This commitment to workplace safety is even more paramount right now as companies begin to return to normal operations after months of stay-at-home orders due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
At CRI, we want to make sure that companies have the guidance and resources they need to welcome employees back to more traditional work settings as safely as possible. To that end, we’ve joined the Safe Actions for Employee Returns (SAFER) initiative — a task force of more than 100 companies and government entities. The SAFER initiative is the brainchild of the National Safety Council (NSC) — a leading nonprofit safety advocate focused on eliminating the leading causes of preventable injuries and deaths. According to the NSC, “the core objective of SAFER is establishing sustainable safe operations for employers and workers as they navigate what the world of work looks like as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
For the past few months, four of our Vice Presidents of Risk Control have worked alongside fellow task force members to develop the resources needed to meet that core objective:
If your company is trying to develop a safe return to work program from COVID-19 business interruptions, we’d definitely recommend checking out the SAFER initiative’s library of checklists, protocols and procedures. To make it easier to find what you need, we’ve provided links to specific SAFER resources below organized by common challenges.
Click on a link to navigate to a specific challenge, or scroll through to browse them all.
For many companies, bringing employees back to a traditional work setting safely during this pandemic is going to be a complex effort requiring coordination across multiple departments, work environments and physical locations. The majority of companies undertaking this effort will likely face challenges unique to their business, making one-size-fits-all approaches impractical.
To address this issue, the task force put together the SAFER Framework: “A map of the key areas around which corporate and public policy leaders are taking action, as well as the operations types in play.” Using this framework, the task force put together playbooks for six general employer considerations and four distinct operational environments to help you tailor a COVID-19 return to work program to your company’s needs.
Click here for a full list of SAFER Framework playbooks.
Image source: NSC SAFER Initiative
As companies return to more traditional working conditions, COVID-19 presents a lot of new challenges— especially for companies who have been working remotely for the past few months — like minimizing the risk of exposure to managing the mental health of employees.
After your company develops a high-level return to work program for COVID-19, it’s important to have procedures in place to address specific action items. If your company needs help implementing specific components of your plan, check out the SAFER Quick Hits — a collection of checklists, procedures and protocols on topics like:
Click here to access the entire library of SAFER Quick Hits.
There’s an old military adage that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. Basically, it means that no matter how well thought out, original plans tend to go out the window as soon as a battle is joined. As the fight against COVID-19 rages on, people will continue to contract COVID-19 — if and when this happens to one of your employees, it’s crucial to have a backup plan.
One of the Quick Hit documents above warrants special attention here as it helps guide your company on what to do in this situation. The Confirmed Case Notification Protocol provides guidance on:
Click here to access the Confirmed Case Notification Protocol.
Right now, making sure your workplace is safe for employees requires taking a variety of precautions, implementing specific decontamination protocols and considering a variety of physical conditions. Completing all of those items often requires specialized equipment, most of which is not easy to find right now. To help your company get the equipment it needs, the task force put together the SAFER Solutions Directory with links to find providers of:
Click here to browse the full collection of resources.
Outside of the direct health effects of the COVID-19 disease, this pandemic has put a serious strain on people’s health. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll:
Over half of U.S. adults (56 percent) report that worry or stress related to the coronavirus outbreak has caused them to experience at least one negative effect on their mental health and wellbeing, such as problems with sleeping or eating, increased alcohol use, or worsening chronic conditions.
To help your company understand how to keep employees safe mentally as well physically, the SAFER task force put together a collection of mental health resources from a variety of experts. The NSC website has links to articles on topics like:
Click here to access the full list of employee mental health and wellbeing resources.
If your company is facing a challenge that the resources linked above couldn’t resolve, the SAFER task force put together a tool to find a variety of useful information related to COVID-19. The NSC SAFER Collection is a searchable catalog of resources geared toward helping employers navigate the post-quarantine world.
Enter this URL into your browser to access the NSC SAFER Collection - http://1501.sydneyplus.com/final/Portal/SAFERCollection.aspx
