Coronavirus: Best Practices for your business, restaurant, delivery service, etc.

Coronavirus: Best Practices for your business, restaurant, delivery service, etc.

• Policies Plans and Documentation for Businesses and Employers
• Employees: screening and testing employees
• OSHA COVID-19 Hazard Assessment s (masks, ppe, sick employees, close contact, quarantine)
• Engineering Controls, physical changes and ventilation
• Cleaning and Disinfection , Hand Hygiene, etc.

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.

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

• Temperature and symptom screening
• Testing for SARS-CoV-2 , the virus that causes COVID-19

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:

• Policies to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2
• General hygiene
• Symptoms , what to do if sick
• Cleaning and disinfection
• Masks
• Social distancing
• Use of PPE
• Safe work practices
• Stress management

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:

• Find Your Local State Department of Health Contact Information
• There are separate guidance for healthcare settings .
• CDC also has guidance for critical infrastructure work settings .

CDC Guidance

• COVID-19 Website
• Business and Workplaces webpage
• General Business Frequently Asked Questions
• Small Business
• Transportation and Delivery
• What You Need to Know About COVID-19
• What to Do If You Are Sick With COVID-19
• What Workers and Employers Can Do to Manage Workplace Fatigue during COVID-19
• People at Higher Risk of Severe Illness
• Public Health Recommendations for Community-Related Exposures
• Public Health Recommendations after Travel-Associated COVID-19 Exposure
• Health Alert Network
• Travelers' Health Website
• National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health's Small Business International Travel Resource Travel Planner
• Managing Workplace Fatigue

Other Federal Agencies

• OSHA COVID-19 Website
• OSHA Guidance for Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19