How to Prevent Illness in the Workplace
How do you protect your workforce from coming down with an illness? And if someone does become ill, when should they still turn up for work?
There’s a fine line between an employee having the sniffles or delirious with a fever and unable to function. Every employer is different and some do expect their workers to only call in sick if they are extremely ill. Every person, however, handles sickness differently and although they may appear to still get through the workload they could be very ill. Worse still, they could be spreading germs around the workplace, infecting every member of staff.
When should you give in and declare the workplace as a quarantine area? Because of the serious epidemics doing their rounds at the moment , any member of staff displaying symptoms should be sent home, even if they feel up to working. It simply would not be worth the whole company becoming ill. Knowing your staff will guide you to separating those who are truly unwell.
Promoting healthy eating in work and perhaps providing fresh fruit for breakfast could encourage staff to remain healthier. Information on flu shots (or subsidising them) could encourage more people to get them. Even though this won’t necessarily prevent someone from becoming ill, it could make a difference to sickness levels in general within the company.
Good hygiene is also a preventative of illness, promote washing hands and/or provide hand santizers at each desk. Special attention should be paid to germ-free work zones: telephones, keyboards, pens etc., should be regularily disinfected.
Here’s to a healthy, happy workplace!
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