Having Employees During COVID

If you own a small business, it's important to make sure the people that work for you (and the people that buy from you) are kept safe. The last thing your business needs is to navigate the legal and medical uncertainties that can arise from unsafe workplace conditions. In the age of the pandemic, with COVID-19 shutting down entire workplaces and putting companies out of business, this is more relevant than ever. In order to keep your business running smoothly, here is a list of some of the best ways to take away medical uncertainties from your business.

Study the Law

While having professionals in your corner to help you navigate stressful legal situations that could arise from medical uncertainties is always wise, some small businesses may not have the budget to keep resources like these on tap. With all the online tools that are available, you don't have to be at the mercy of a local lawyer's hourly rate in order to feel protected and secure. In fact, there are many high quality institutions that offer a master of legal studies online course where you can get the education yourself, on your own time. You can concentrate on different areas such as Business Law, Human Resources Law, or cut straight to the chase and study Health Law. Depending on the needs of your business, you can customize your education to make the most of the time investment.

Identify Essential Business Functions

If a disease breakout were to occur within one of your business departments, would it sideline the entire business or could it still operate? First identifying which business functions and employees are essential can help you to know what backup plans to make in case they are unable to complete their functions. Look at suppliers, vendors, raw materials and logistics that you need to have in place to help your business run smoothly. Identify which ones need a Plan B, in case of emergency, and you'll be able to carry on business operations when uncertainties hit.

Let Employees Work Remotely

One of the savviest moves you can make both for safety reasons as well as your bottom line, is to create policies that allow for more remote work time for your employees. This could be in the form of paid or unpaid leave, employee compensation, or telework. In order to keep company culture and employee morale high, you'll want to make sure that your remote working policies aren't punitive and that they allow people that are sick to stay home away from other co-workers or potential clients. You'll also want to consider employees that may need to stay home because of school closures or childcare closures in order to take care of their kids.

Allowing employees to work remotely can have benefits that extend beyond just safety. Without requiring employees to come in, you can reduce office space and lower your overhead costs. You can increase employees' work/life balance by giving them more flexibility in where they work from. Also, there are environmental benefits from not requiring benefits to drive into work every day. Obviously not every workplace can allow remote working for all of their employees, but in light of the pandemic, more businesses than ever are looking for ways to be efficient and reduce liabilities that arise from medical uncertainties.

Review Policies With Employees

Once you've created great leave policies, make sure you go over them with your staff. Make sure they have all of the necessary information to navigate the rules and have access to assistance. You can also better educate them on how to protect themselves at work as well as at home. Not only is this a good way to instill confidence in your employees about your safety plans, but it also can help to reduce your liability since you've made it a point to cover the information for all those that work for you.

Employ the tips above to help your business remain successful in light of medical uncertainties for many years to come.