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Coronavirus: Best Practices for your business, restaurant, delivery service, etc.
Coronavirus: Best Practices for your business, restaurant, delivery service, etc.
If you are a business owner looking for guidance to project your employees, your customers yourself and your business itself from this of coronavirus (both the health risk and the business liabilities) the resources on this page and those linked to below will be helpful.
Overview
Below is an overview, see the detail on the pages linked above.
Assess your essential functions and the reliance that
others and the community have on your services or products.
- Be prepared to change your business practices, if needed, to maintain
critical operations (e.g., identify alternative suppliers, prioritize existing customers, or temporarily suspend some of your
operations).
- Identify alternate supply chains for critical goods and services. Some goods
and services may be in higher demand or unavailable.
- If other companies provide your business with contract or temporary
employees, talk with them about the importance of sick employees staying home and encourage them to develop non-punitive leave policies.
- Talk with business partners about your response efforts. Share best practices
with other businesses in your communities (especially those in your supply chain), chambers of commerce, and associations to improve
community response efforts.
- Identify and prioritize job functions for continuous operations. Minimize the
number of workers present at worksites by balancing the need to protect workers with support for continuing operations.
Determine how you will operate if absenteeism spikes from
increases in sick employees, those who stay home to care for sick family members, and those who must stay home to watch their children until
childcare
programs and K-12 schools can resume their normal schedules.
- Plan to monitor and respond to absenteeism at the workplace.
- Implement plans to continue your essential business functions in case you
experience higher-than-usual absenteeism.
- Prepare to institute flexible workplace and leave policies.
- Cross-train employees to perform essential functions so the workplace can
operate even if key employees are absent.
Top of Page
Establish policies and practices for
social
distancing. Alter your workspace to help
workers and customers maintain social distancing and physically separate employees from each other and from customers, when possible. Here
are some strategies that businesses can use:
- Implement flexible worksites (e.g., telework).
- Implement flexible work hours (e.g., rotate or stagger shifts to limit the
number of employees in the workplace at the same time).
- Increase physical space between employees at the worksite by modifying the
workspace.
- Increase physical space between employees and customers (e.g., drive-through
service, physical barriers such as partitions).
- Use signs, tape marks, or other visual cues such as decals or colored tape on
the floor, placed at least 6 feet apart, to indicate where to stand when physical barriers are not possible.
- Implement flexible meeting and travel options (e.g., postpone in-person
non-essential meetings or events in accordance with state and local regulations and guidance).
- Close or limit access to common areas where employees are likely to
congregate and interact.
- Prohibit handshaking.
- Deliver services remotely (e.g., phone, video, or web).
- Adjust your business practices to reduce close contact with customers - for
example, by providing drive-through service, click-and-collect online shopping, shop-by-phone, curbside pickup, and delivery options,
where feasible.
- Move the electronic payment terminal/credit card reader farther away from the
cashier, if possible, to increase the distance between the customer and the cashier.
- Shift primary stocking activities to off-peak or after hours, when possible,
to reduce contact with customers.
If you have more than one business location, consider giving local
managers the authority to take appropriate actions outlined in their COVID-19 response plans based on their local conditions.
Employers: Use the table below to implement the most appropriate controls for your workplace
The table below presents examples of controls to implement in your workplace. The most effective controls are those that rely on
engineering solutions, followed by administrative controls, then PPE. PPE is the least effective control method and the most difficult to
implement. Worksites may have to implement multiple complementary controls from these columns to effectively control the hazard.
Administrative
Screening
Management and Communications
- Monitor state and local public health communications about
COVID-19
- Encourage sick workers to report symptoms, stay home, and
follow CDC guidance
- Develop strategies to:
- manage worker concerns
- communicate with workers
- Remind workers of available support services
- Communicate to partners, suppliers, other contractors on
policies and practices
- Encourage
social
distancing and the use of masks (if appropriate) in the workplace
- Use technology to promote social distancing (e.g., telework
and virtual meetings)
- Cancel group events
- Close/limit use of shared spaces
- Ask customers who are ill to stay home
- Consider policies that encourage flexible sick leave and
alternative work schedules.
- Schedule stocking during off-peak hours
- Maintain a
tobacco-free
workplace
Cleaning and Disinfection
-
Clean and disinfect frequently touched surfaces, (e.g., counters, shelving, displays)
- Provide employees with disposable disinfectant wipes,
cleaner, or sprays that are effective against the virus that causes COVID-19
Training
Provide
employees with training on:
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
PPE
- Conduct workplace hazard
assessment
- Determine what PPE is needed for workers' specific job duties
based on hazards and other controls present
- Select and provide appropriate PPE to the workers at no cost
Resources for more information:
CDC Guidance
Other Federal Agencies
