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Getting Back to Business Safely

April 21, 2020

Deploy Digital Cleaning & Sanitization Checklists at Scale to Protect Workers

As talks begin about lifting the restrictions on nonessential businesses in the wake of COVID-19 closures, some business executives have expressed concern about the consequences of doing so too quickly.

If employees return to work and become sick with Coronavirus and feel they were brought back too soon — or into unsafe conditions — mass lawsuits could ensue.

Experts agree that more testing is key to reopening the economy, but it’s also incumbent upon employers to provide a safe workspace to protect their staff and reduce the risk of litigation.

In his New York Times oped laying out his plan for reopening the country, Vice President Joe Biden said he “would direct the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), working with organized labor and employee groups, to figure out what protections workers need on the job during this period.”

OSHA has published guidance for preparing workplaces for COVID-19, that includes maintaining “regular housekeeping practices, including routine cleaning and disinfecting of surfaces, equipment, and other elements of the work environment.”

With COVID-19 safety complaints already on the rise, employers should “document any proactive measures they are taking based on the specific risks present in their workplace,” according to EHS Today.

A cleaning checklist that includes often-overlooked but frequently touched surfaces (like handrails, light switches and vending-machine buttons) can help businesses reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and provide documentation that proper precautions are being taken.

4 Ways to Improve Sanitization Procedures

Fulcrum has been helping organizations implement OSHA compliance checklists for nearly a decade. Users are able to complete all sorts of inspection checklists quickly and efficiently with just a mobile device, and share the results with stakeholders in real-time.

In response to the current pandemic, employers can use Fulcrum to:

  • Automate checklists and data collection for sanitization processes at scale
  • Optimize the workflows of sanitization teams to maximize efficiency
  • Validate that proper procedures and inspections were followed
  • Give management real-time visibility into where effective measures are being taken and where action is required

For example, using Fulcrum’s COVID-19 Cleaning Inspection Checklist, sanitization teams can collect data for every area of their workspace, on a room by room basis, to document that proper sanitization procedures are being followed to reduce the risk of Coronavirus infection. Every record in Fulcrum is automatically geotagged and timestamped, showing exactly where and when each checklist was completed.

In this way, organizations can be confident — and provide proof — that every measure has been taken to protect their employees as they reopen their workspaces.

We’re offering Fulcrum at no cost, with support to get your teams onboarded quickly, for a 90-day period for COVID-19 response operations. Contact us to learn more.