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Checklist: Making your workplace safe and productive

Struggling to keep up with the latest coronavirus guidance for your workplace? Our checklist highlights important steps you can take to create a safe, productive environment.

This checklist outlines how business leaders can overcome some of the biggest workplace challenges during the coronavirus. This includes making your workplace coronavirus secure, managing remote employees and looking after staff mental health. For more information, see our workplace FAQ.

Remember that every business is different and you should always think carefully about what’s best for your own circumstances. This information is provided for general use only and isn’t intended to amount to advice on which you should rely. 

Please see our full terms and conditions below and our more detailed website terms of use.

Make your workplace coronavirus secure

  1. Conduct a coronavirus risk assessment if you haven’t already. This will highlight areas of risk in your workplace and advise practical countermeasures
  2. Encourage social distancing by using floor tape or paint to mark work areas, having people work side-by-side rather than face-to-face and limiting the movement of people in high-traffic areas
  3. Make sure staff and customers wear face coverings if you work in retail, leisure or hospitality
  4. Use the NHS Test and Trace system and maintain records of staff, customers and visitors for 21 days 
  5. Check staff understand what they should do if they have coronavirus symptoms or need to self-isolate. Employees should:

Promote positive mental health and work-life balance

  1. Ask managers to check in with employees regularly to find out how they’re feeling
  2. Use Mind’s Mental Health at Work Commitment as a framework for supporting your employees’ mental health during the crisis
  3. Be mindful of employee workloads, particularly if they’re struggling with stress or have to fit work around childcare
  4. Advise remote workers to have a set workstation or office to replicate the feeling of going to work and leaving each day
  5. Encourage healthy activities like walking around the block on lunch breaks or taking online exercise classes
  6. Plan online social events to boost employee morale, like a quiz or movie club
  7. Use quick pulse surveys to get near real-time data on how staff are feeling. People are likely to be more honest in anonymous surveys, so you can get a genuine understanding of whether you’re providing the right support

Support furloughed employees

  1. Be transparent with employees about why they were selected for furlough. Pre-empt concerns about job security by reminding them that they are valued and that the furlough is only temporary
  2. Set up a weekly video call to find out how they’re coping and if they need any additional support
  3. Discuss their ambitions for their role and identify useful training programmes or skills they could learn during furlough
  4. Encourage furloughed staff to keep in touch with colleagues and invite them to work social events
  5. Plan for their return to work in advance to make the transition as smooth as possible

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