How Did COVID-19 Affect Occupational Health and Safety Standards?

How did COVID-19 affect workplace safety? Ever since the start of the pandemic, businesses have had to adjust their health and safety standards to stay open. Some of these changes included: improved sanitation, lower occupancy rates, and vaccine requirements.

Improved Sanitation

One of the most notable changes due to COVID-19 was the increased sanitation efforts. Businesses need to clean and disinfect all common areas regularly, including restrooms, break rooms, kitchens, lobbies, and other spaces where employees or patrons gather.

Sanitation efforts also need to extend to shared equipment and surfaces, like phones, computers, and counters. Moving forward, businesses should provide sanitation supplies, like hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes, for employees and customers to use throughout the facility.

Vaccine Requirements

In some industries and businesses, companies have either created vaccine requirements or started vaccine initiatives to ensure their team is protected. For example, many healthcare organizations will only hire new employees if they’re vaccinated.

Other companies offer incentives for employees to get vaccinated, like extra paid time off or gift cards.

Lower Occupancy

Occupancy limits have been enacted during the pandemic due to high numbers of COVID-19. The lower occupancy is to help reduce the chances of transmission by giving people more space for social distance.

Restaurants, in particular, had to quickly adapt. For some businesses, they opted to close their business to the public. Others chose to lower occupancy and encourage more takeout/delivery orders.

While the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lessen moving forward, the lessons we learned should not be forgotten. The pandemic has highlighted many areas where businesses struggle to effectively protect their employees and customers.

JMB Risk Management provides clients with up-to-date health and safety knowledge that meets Canadian provincial legislative requirements (WorkSafe BC), industry best practices, and relevant standards of Occupational Health and Safety (OHSA) regulations, in British Columbia and Alberta.