How the Wilson Security corporate risk team can help your business return to work

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), nearly half of Australia’s workforce has spent time working from home in 2020. As lockdown and physical distancing restrictions slowly ease, corporate businesses must ensure return to work policies do enough to keep employees safe. During this critical transition period, there are important risk assessment and planning elements to review and implement.

Wilson Security’s corporate risk team can help your business return to work safely. Find out how.

Put your people first

The health and safety of your people should be at the heart of your return to work policy. Not every employee will feel the same about returning to the workplace. And some employees have extenuating personal circumstances, such as childcare needs, that add further complexities.

You may consider:

• Health and safety – Are your employees comfortable returning to the workplace? And if so, what will this look like?
• Financial costs and revenue – What will it cost to bring people into the workplace?
• Types of work – New ways of working in a safe and productive manner
• Worker preferences and needs – Encouraging empathy in your policies and communicating in a transparent, empathetic and reassuring way.

Create a return to work (RTW) plan

Navigating challenges and changes requires strong leadership. Therefore, mobilising your return to work response starts with identifying key leaders. Ideally, it should include your current leadership team and security experts who can guide your planning.

Identifying, analysing and evaluating return to work risks can inform your return to work plan. Your plan should detail how to:

• Maintain safe distancing with employees and visitors
• Safely manage traffic flows in and out of the workplace
• Plan for desks, collaboration spaces and ways of working
• Provide clear and empathetic messaging for employees
• Measure the health and safety of your people
• Manage cleaning, sanitation and provision of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Your plan should also include a risk management process for contact tracing and what you’d do in the event of an outbreak. Businesses must define protocols for pre-entry to work, safe travel to and from work locations, use of common spaces and post-infection policy.

Some businesses may opt for shift work or for select staff to continue working from home. Every business’ plan will be a little different. That’s why it’s vital to incorporate professional guidance from corporate risk teams to do it right.

Educate and empower staff through information and training

Post-lockdown, your business will be operating under new demands. New risk controls, incident management processes and precautions will be needed to keep everyone safe.

Educating staff on health and safety measures both in-person and across internal communication channels can empower staff. Everyone plays a part in maintaining a safe work environment. You can do this by providing proper education and staff training.

Wilson Security’s specialist national corporate risk team are health, safety and environment experts. Our team can help create and manage robust procedures, measures and education to help you train staff on new and evolving COVID-safe processes.

Update your business continuity plan

Alongside your return-to-work plan, you’ll need to revisit your business continuity plan to protect your business’ financial stability.

Your continuity plan should include:

• Business risks (what is the risk and potential business impact?)
• Impact (high, medium, low)
• Potential impact (e.g. highly unlikely, unlikely, likely, very likely)
• Mitigation strategy (what actions you will take to reduce potential risks)
• Contingency plan (what to do if the risk is realised).

Wilson Security’s corporate risk team is highly experienced in risk management. We can help you with scenario planning and strategies to prevent, prepare and respond to risks and crises. This includes having a clear understanding of the moving parts of your business.

Prioritising your business continuity plan can better equip you for turbulent or uncertain times.

Identify and activate processes

In order to effectively plan, you’ll need to understand the staff requirements for your services. Wilson Security’s corporate risk team can help you identify critical roles, people and resources.

We can help you activate agile processes and integrate central resources to easily share information and procedures with your team. We’ll ensure your strategies are easy to follow and implement.

Develop a crisis response plan

In the event of an issue or crisis, your business will need rigorous response systems in place. Wilson Security’s corporate risk team specialise in this field. We can assist with every aspect of your business continuity and crisis management preparations.

We can review your business’ critical services and key deliverables to ensure they are supported. This may include contract reviews to ensure surge capacity, and rostering of support staff to ensure contract delivery. Your crisis response plan should detail who is responsible and what actions need to be taken to return a situation to normal.

Implement new risk and hazard assessments and methods

For corporate businesses to safely return to work, risks and hazard management must take centre stage.

Prevention

Operational risks must be thoroughly documented and assessed on an ongoing basis. New safety controls in common areas can greatly benefit from up-to-date tools and safety procedures. For example, Wilson Security’s thermal temperature cameras can help detect elevated skin temperature and potential viruses. This state-of-the-art technology can be used to safely manage traffic flow from a distance.

Security personnel can monitor and respond to abnormalities to ensure everyone’s safety and reduce the risk of infection in your business.

Our corporate risk team can conduct toolbox training talks about new safety measures, such as maintaining physical distance, using PPE and other hygiene controls. Your health and security team will need to carefully monitor procedures – our risk team can recommend and implement processes that support these important prevention elements.

Response

In your return to work policy, staff will need to report incidents swiftly and effectively. Whether staff are working from home or in the workplace, they must have the tools, infrastructure, information technology and support to work safely. All employees must know how to report and respond to any threats.

Our corporate risk team can help you create a contract tracing process to roll out and respond to any outbreaks in your workplace.

Managing your safe return to the workplace

Wilson Security’s corporate risk personnel are ready to assist your team to return to the workplace safely. From on-demand training, assessment and solutions to ongoing risk management, we can help.

You can rely on our expertise, knowledge and guidance to carefully transition back into work. Contact us today for a tailored corporate risk solution.