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With the world going back to its normal, the states and local governments are phasing out their stay-at-home orders applied to respond to Covid-19. In a situation such as this, ensuring the health safety of employees and other people naturally becomes the primary focus for businesses.
Temperature Checks for Employees
iLobby Visitor management offers Temperature checks for employees that are becoming a growing norm in workplaces across Canada. They aren’t foolproof but are helpful in detecting sick employees. These temperature checks are currently a requirement for businesses in almost every state.
It is a part of a comprehensive health screening policy that helps companies screen their employees for specific COVID-19 symptoms. This smart step towards ensuring the health safety of people will go a long way toward protecting your employees.
Benefits of Workplace Temperature Checks
The need for making temperature checks mandatory for every workplace is debatable. However, it still does comes with its own benefits:
1. Peace of Mind
The most common symptom of Covid-19 has been found out to be increased body temperature. So by checking the temperature, the businesses can rest assured about the health safety of their other employees.
2. Prevention from Exposure to Virus and Other Diseases
The symptom of increased temperature is also associated with many illness and by checking the temperature businesses are preventing the exposure of their employees to the virus along with other diseases.
3. Protection from Lawsuit
Temperature checks are a way of ensuring the health safety of employees at the workplace and it is the duty of the employer to do so. If any employer is found to be negligent or careless, they could risk facing legal actions as well as fines. So following the government guidelines is an essential step in order to protect yourself from any potential lawsuit.
How You Can Ensure The Safety of Your Workplace?
Several basic steps should be followed as part of a comprehensive plan to reduce the chances of Covid-19 outbreak at a workplace.
“Temperature measurements are very imprecise,” said John Whyte, chief medical officer at WebMD. “Although fever is a common symptom, people can have COVID and not have a fever, or they can be taking medicines – sometimes unknowingly – that also reduce fever. People can even have other health issues that cause fever. It provides a false sense of security.”
The below-mentioned steps are recommended by the government to keep workplaces safe:
Conducting Health Screenings
Temperature checks are one of the most effective ways of ensuring the safety of the workplace. They should be conducted before an employee enters the premises. Businesses should also record the temperatures of the employees and it should be kept confidential to protect the privacy of the employees.
Encouraging The Use of Masks
Wearing masks should become mandatory for all the employees as it helps the employees protect themselves as well as everyone that they may come in contact with. However, in case they are having a significant effect on someone’s health such as trouble in breathing, skin irritation then it shouldn’t be enforced.
Facilitating Social Distancing
It is important for businesses to make sure their employees are keeping a 6-feet of social distance between them. Companies can facilitate it by installing physical barriers, transparent sheets, rearranging desks, alternate shifts, etc.
“If a company is building a COVID-prevention program for the workplace, temperature checks are the least they can do,” said Dr. Jonathan Spero, a physician, and expert on pandemic preparedness. “Temperature checks are absolutely not foolproof, but they are really a requirement now for employers to bring people back to work.”
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