Margaret D. Davis, Performance Consultant, Hile Group
Critical Components for Your Pandemic Playbook
One of the best things we can do in the face of the uncertainty during COVID-19 is learn. This crisis requires us all to be adaptive, transformative, and resilient. It forces us to look beyond the basics of handwashing and disinfectants to the foundations of safety culture.
While following current CDC guidelines, here are some additional strategies to ensure your Pandemic Playbook keeps you in the game:
- Monitor your data and communicate it often. To keep the realities of the virus top of mind for temporary employees to executive management, keep apprised of local updates and adjust protocols accordingly. Sharing data like the number of confirmed positive and negative cases in the company, successful contact tracing and self-quarantine numbers, and anticipated impacts on work schedules and operations are imperative to help keep the rumor mill at bay and put people’s minds at ease.
- Regularly audit the COVID-19-related systems you’ve put into place. Accessible, maintained, and audited fixes and systems will give people the confidence to trust that the measures in place are merited.
- Establish a point person for employees to communicate with. To understand the continuous information (and misinformation) presented, employees need access and permission to ask questions of a real person. As we’re inundated with COVID-related news, emails, memos, and articles, never underestimate the power of connecting people to a trusted company representative for voice to voice communication.
- Focus on work results, not the time it takes to complete. It’s ill-advised to let external production pressures set your pace. This is true under normal circumstances, but even more so in the current COVID-19 climate. Social distancing and face coverings are likely to be the first things to go out the window if employees are struggling to meet deadlines.
- Adopt the mantra of “Let’s not take it home, so let’s not take it to work, either!” It just takes one person to person contact outside of work to take down a crew. As we’re developing a new set of social distance and sanitation habits, make a commitment to reinforce these behaviors for yourself and everyone around you 24-7. While you can’t control what people do outside of work, you can influence their actions by providing the tools to make smart, safe, and healthy choices in and outside of work.
- Structure facilities into cohorts. It’s inevitable that the virus will reach your workplace. Keeping your facilities organized into strategic groups will help you trace sources of potential exposure/risk. This will help you avoid system-wide shutdowns when an employee tests positive and can’t remember who they’ve made contact with or where they’ve been in the days prior to their diagnosis.
- Encourage field-driven adaptations that could potentially become lasting systems improvements. Who better to find innovative ways to socially distance, wear face coverings in the heat, and plan work safely than the people required to follow the guidelines?
- Capture lessons learned. Systems thinking you do now will improve your ability to weather the next storm. Document the framework you have developed to mitigate COVID-19 so you’ll have something to work from in the event of future pandemics. Ensure your business continuity plans allow for no single point of failure, especially in your supply chain.
Among our safety culture partners we see pandemic response plans full of powerful anticipation, preparation, and full-on associate engagement. When the next crisis comes, it will be clear who took advantage of the opportunity for action learning. Don’t just plan—strategize so that you’re able to survive and thrive in the most important game any of us will ever play in.
About the Author
A west Texas native having never met a stranger, Margaret Davis possesses an intuitive understanding of the role people play in any endeavor. As a Senior Performance Consultant at Hile Group, she specializes in safety engagement and continuous learning. Known for her accessible, hands-on approach, Margaret is motivated by the knowledge that her work with Hile Group’s partners catalyzes tangible, quantifiable change. She takes pride in driving down incident rates, knowing that what you see in the data translates to safer, more productive conditions on the ground.
Her extensive experience in human resources management coupled with her deep knowledge of the construction and marine industries positions Margaret as a powerful partner in promoting safe work practices, improving operations, and launching initiatives that link safety improvement with leadership development. With her unique understanding of the connection between people and organizational systems, Margaret helps companies revitalize once successful safety efforts and push through plateaus.
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