Mitigating the Facility Risk during a Pandemic

We all are living in a world of uncertainty today. The pandemic has left many jobless and has cast a big impact on the global economy. People are stuck in their house for months complying with the stay at home orders. More than half of the working population of the world are working remotely from their homes as the Covid-19 keeps claiming more and more lives. Governments are of the view that this situation will now be the new normal and the sooner we can adopt it as a part of our lifestyle, the easier will it be for us to adjust to it.

There are many speculations from across the globe regarding a cure to the virus. However, no country has been able to announce a positive cure until now. As we are busy adjusting to this schedule and governments are slowly relaxing the stay at home orders, many businesses are planning to return to work. Businesses as well as facilities are at a vulnerable stage now. With the global economy hitting an all-time low, many businesses are either shutting down temporarily or are operational with reduced staff. In this scenario, the facility management sector is striving to mitigate the risks imposed by the pandemic on facilities. Let us take a look at how:

• Covid-19 graphics and signs: in these difficult times, a lot of businesses are coming forward to actively help their communities. These businesses are offering a wide selection of essential resources like Covid-19 graphics and safety products like social distancing signs, health, and wellness signs, return to work graphics, back to school signs, and a lot more. These signs and posters can be used in and outside your office to make your employees and visitors aware of the health, hygiene, and social distancing protocols. This is a great way to implement and enforce health and safety standards in your facility as well as keep the people inside your office facility or visiting the facility safe.

• Sanitize regularly: as a facility manager, you need to ensure that you employ teams that sanitize the entire facility along with the high touch surfaces at least twice a day. This will ensure that the chances of contamination are minimal. This will also go a long way in encouraging your employees in practicing regular sanitization measures.

• Implement strategies: as a facility manager, you need to strategize on different areas that will keep the facility free from the threats of the virus. A maximum occupancy needs to be set in elevators and in areas that experience high traffic within the facility like restrooms, reception areas, canteens, and meeting rooms. You can arrange for pick up and drop facilities for your employees to and from the office. This will ensure that they have minimal exposure to the outside world. The occupancy in the cabs to need to be set between two to three people at the maximum. Also, to help reduce the number of workers at one given point of time in the facility, you can introduce shifts and make them work in rotation.

• Additional facility: there are high chances that any worker, anytime might fall sick or might start showing the symptoms of the virus. To be prepared for emergencies like these, you need to arrange for an additional room inside your facility that will accommodate someone who does not feel healthy all of a sudden at work. Arrangements must also be made wherein an ambulance must be there inside the facility that would carry the sick employee to the nearest hospital. The availability of a few essential first aids must also be checked within the facility so that someone who needs immediate medical attention can be taken care of if anything urgent comes up.

• Let technology do its part: today, there are very few facility managers who rely on manual labor to manage the facility. However, when there is a pandemic outbreak like the Covid-19, relying on facilities management software or a facility management app always makes your job easier. With the click of a button on your phone, you can have the floor plan, equipment location, and all other important information about your facility at your fingertips. A facility management software helps you prepare for emergencies and also take the correct decisive actions at the right time.  When you have information on the go, you are always prepared, no matter how complex or big the challenge is.

Apart from the above-mentioned measures, you will also need to be aware that a sudden spike in the number of cases might bring in new orders or guidelines from your government based on which you might need to take some rapid actions. Therefore, always being alert, prepared, and updated is the best way to mitigate any risk to your facility during the Covid-19 outbreak. 

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Created on Jul 8th 2020 02:35. Viewed 185 times.

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