As the vaccine programmes roll out and travel restrictions recede, those returning to the workplace will want to know exactly what steps their employer has taken to keep them safe there.
Adherence to social-distancing and hygiene protocols are a basic minimum requirement, as is the provision of hand-sanitising stations. But there is now also an array of technologies that can be deployed too.
For field workers, UtilityAR, which specialises in augmented-reality solutions for smart factories, is already being used as a way of enabling staff who normally work side by side, such as field engineers, to do so remotely. By wearing its AR eyeglasses, a technician can share what they are seeing with a boss miles away.
Construction work continued throughout the lockdowns. For employers looking to keep Covid risks to a minimum, ensuring activities such as induction training takes place remotely, and reducing paper-based services makes sense. GoContractor’s contractor-management platform helps them do just that. Putting a QR code sticker on a worker’s helmet means scanners can clock them in and out at a distance.
Monitoring
Those worried about overcrowding in a workplace can turn to Crowd Insights from Taoglas, which provides an Internet of Things solution that uses your building’s wifi to measure, monitor and alert you to social-distancing breaches.
Even our surfaces can be made safer. Coatings expert Kastus has pioneered an antimicrobial hard-surface coating that kills Covid-19 on everything from floor tiles to touch-screen devices.
Awareness of the importance of maintaining mental health is high. Corporate wellness and wellbeing programmes can help, as can the use of on-demand digital programmes provided by Silver Cloud Health.
Air quality will come under closer scrutiny, with quite possibly a premium developing for buildings with windows that actually open, such as already exists for buildings that promote natural light.
Management at Cruinn Diagnostics, a supplier of clinical diagnostics equipment to industry for more than two decades, believes the provision of on-site Covid testing will have a key role to play in keeping employees safe.
“As society opens up, the provision of testing for staff is going to become more important,” says Aidan Wearan, the company’s sales and marketing manager.
Its sister company, Healthwatch, already provides health and lifestyle screen programmes in the workplace. Since the pandemic it has offered onsite “return to work” Covid-19 testing, including Covid-19 swab testing and Covid-19 antibody testing.
It provides rapid-testing kits to organisations that are typically large enough to have an occupational nurse to administer them. Its nasal swab tests are less invasive than the nasopharyngeal swabs that go right back up into the nose.
The CE-marked rapid-test kits meet both European and World Health Organisation standards and provide the requisite sensitivity and specificity – measures that refer to a test’s ability to detect disease and detect the absence of disease.
They provide results in just 15 minutes and are particularly well suited for environments in which people may have to be tested frequently, such as schools and nursing homes, “Or anywhere where there is potential for an outbreak, or where people are trying to control an outbreak,” says Wearan.
The test kits cost between €8 and €9 each, depending on the volumes being procured. If you’re a buyer new to area of testing kits and PPE, look for track record, good customer support and robust supply chains, advises Wearan.
Sanity System is an air-sanitisation device that uses ozone gas technology for spaces, vehicles, air and water, and is more than 99 per cent effective against SARS-CoV-2.
The portable units dispense measured levels of ozone, using protocols designed to eliminate almost 100 per cent of bacteria, germs, viruses, yeasts, mould, fungi and spores present in environments and on surfaces.
It is licensed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and clients include the Health Service Executive, Garda Síochána, Fingal County Council, Keeling’s, Care Choice Nursing Homes and Irish Ferries.
The company, which is more than a decade old, is an established sanitation expert using a system that was initially developed to sanitise ambulances in Italy.
The plug-and-play solution takes 45 minutes to cleanse a medium-sized room, and is often used in canteens, boardrooms and staff toilets, says David Byrne, Sanity Systems’ managing director. “It’s 10 times more effective than chlorine and reaches every nook and cranny in a room, even penetrating fabrics,” he says.
The experiences of the past year have changed behaviour and attitudes irrevocably, he reckons. “We have reached a tipping point in terms of cleanliness that will last long after this threat is gone,” says Byrne.
The machines come in a range of prices, with one for a small room costing €2,450, and for a large open space, such as a canteen, €3,450. Supplier flexibility is key right now as employers manage the safe return to work. It’s why Sanity Systems are also available for rent, from €95 a month.
“We want to make sure to meet the needs of any organisation, from large corporate to small business,” says Byrne.
Innovations
Right now employers and employees alike are wary about health and safety, and rightly so. However, points out Brian Fenton, sales manager of Decontamination Solutions and Technologies, a specialist division of Sisk Healthcare, there is much reason for confidence too.
Not alone does the world now have effective vaccines against Covid-19, but the innovations to protect us haven’t stopped there.
“There is technology available which is new to people but will give them a helping hand as they reopen their businesses this year and keep everyone safe,” he explains.
Decontamination Solutions is part of the Sisk Healthcare Group, a leading European medical device distributor representing eight businesses across Europe.
“At Sisk Healthcare we understand the challenges facing businesses today,” says Fenton, who says its 25 years helping the healthcare industry with decontamination and infection prevention means it’s a brand people can rely on.
That matters because right now employers are looking for solutions they can trust to help them keep staff, and customers, safe as we all navigate our way through to a safer future.
Decontamination Solutions has a range of products to help, says Fenton, pointing in particular to its SteriPro disinfectant technology, a cleaning robot that uses UV-C light to kill coronavirus as well as 99 per cent of pathogens on all hard surfaces, and VirusKiller, which uses UV-C light to do the same for air.
“Our mission is to restore trust with our best-in-class, hospital-grade decontamination technology, which is aimed at providing a clean and assured environment for all businesses, by minimising the spread of viruses, bacteria and pollutants,” he says.
