Risk-informed decision-making guidelines for workplaces and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic

• Communication about risk to staff/clients should be emphasized;
• Encourage the use of individual measures such as frequent hand hygiene, social distancing, respiratory etiquette and staying home when ill;
• Provide options to the medically at risk to reduce social contacts at work, such as teleworking arrangements, if possible.

• Consideration should be given to modifying service delivery (e.g., reducing number of clients using services at the same time, providing services outdoors) and promoting use of individual measures such as frequent hand hygiene, social distancing, respiratory etiquette.
• Consider need for increased frequency of cleaning especially of high touch services.

Returning international travelers and people who potentially had contact with a case (e.g., at a conference or within their household) are being asked to self-isolate at home for 14 days.

If they are essential service workers (such as health care providers, critical infrastructure workers) they may need to return to work within the 14 day period in order to provide health care services or avoid essential service interruption.

• Plan for absenteeism or alternative working arrangements (i.e., teleworking);
• For returning travellers, who are asymptomatic, and deemed essential workers (i.e., health care providers, and critical infrastructure workers), considerations should be given to more stringent self-monitoring and other measures to reduce exposure and transmission to others. In consultation with PHA, employers should conduct a risk assessment considering local epidemiology, response goal, critical infrastructure resources and potential positive and negative impacts of recommendations.

• Consider involving the local PHA in decision-making about workplace/business closure.

What kind of service does your workplace/business provide (e.g., customer service, food service, manufacturing, hoteling, rideshare, etc.)?

The risk of being exposed and/or acquiring the infection is greater if employees/clients interact more closely (i.e., close contact) with one another or with numerous clients (e.g. personal care services).

The duration of the exposure also has an impact on the risk of transmission. The longer the exposure, the higher the risk for transmission.

Given that COVID-19 can survive on surfaces and objects for hours to days, work and/or services that are transactional in nature may represent a higher risk of exposure (e.g., exchange of money or items).

• Adjust workplace policies and procedures to reduce social contact, such as teleworking arrangements, flexible hours, staggering start times, use of email and teleconferencing;
• Consider going cashless, and encourage hand hygiene after exchange of money or items;
• Reinforce safe food handling practices.

• Reinforce social distancing measures (e.g. avoid greetings like handshakes, maintain 2m distances between people if possible);
• Avoid sharing communal office equipment/supplies (e.g., tablets, electronic devices);
• Avoid potlucks, buffets, where serving utensils, plates, trays and other objects may be handled by multiple people.
• Employees should perform hand hygiene between client interactions.

• Consider the societal impacts of altering, reducing or stopping services;
• Review and revise, as needed, your business continuity plans to prioritize key functions in the event of high workplace absenteeism.

• Workplaces/businesses that operate in public spaces and/or urban centres can consider modifying service delivery/hours or closing to reduce spread;
• Encourage employees/clients to take public transit at non-peak times or to use a personal vehicle if possible to limit contact with others.
• Employers/businesses with more than one location are encouraged to adopt a tailored approach on workplace measures based on local context.

• Review and revise, as needed, your business continuity plans to prioritize key functions in the even of high workplace absenteeism;
• Update emergency contact information of employees/contractors.

Many employees/clients could be ill or be a caregiver to an ill person (e.g., elderly parent, child), therefore would be unable to attend work for a number of days or weeks. Are employees cross-trained to assume other functions within your workplace/business?

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 if dismissed from school.

High importance

• Prepare to institute flexible workplace and leave policies for employees who are sick, in self-isolation, or caring for family members.

Workplaces and businesses with an existing risk communication plan are more likely to be able to ease employees'/clients' fear, anxiety, rumors, and misinformation. This will contribute to a more productive workforce in uncertain times.

Good communications channels are key to reinforce public health measures in the workplaces such as hand hygiene, respiratory etiquette, and staying home when ill in order to limit transmission. It may also help with compliance with public health advice.

• Develop a risk communication plan to ensure effective and efficient communication with employees, contractors and clients.

• Consider staggering work hours to reduce crowding and close contact;
• Consider retaining employees with critical functions only to reduce crowding and close contact.

• Consider relaxing sick leave policies that support employees in self-isolating when ill, exposed to cases, or returning from international travel, such as suspending the need for medical notes to return to work.

• Tailor plans for minimizing stress based on the employee/client situation;
• Provide mental health support services.

Respiratory droplets tend to fall within 2 metres of their source, so maintaining a 2-metre distance from others is a precaution to prevent spread.

If the employer/owner is unable to modify the workplace/venue to maintain spatial separation between employees and/or clients (ideally 2 meters), the risk of transmission is greater (e.g., spacing out tables in restaurants, leaving a couple of empty seats between moviegoers).

Hand hygiene should be performed more frequently. Alcohol-based hand rub (60% alcohol or greater) or hand washing sinks with soap and disposable towels should be made readily available.

• Provide access to handwashing facilities and place hand sanitizing dispensers in prominent locations throughout the workplace/business, if possible;
• Provide additional respiratory etiquette supplies such as tissues, lined waste container, and hand hygiene products/supplies;
• Consider increasing the spatial separation between desks and workstations as well as individuals (e.g., employees, customers) from each other, ideally a 2 metre separation or use a physical barrier (e.g., cubicle, Plexiglas window), if possible;
• Enhance your environmental cleaning procedures and protocols with a special attention to high-touch surfaces and object.

• Enhance your environmental cleaning procedures and protocols with a special attention to high-touch surfaces and object (e.g., phones, elevator buttons, computers, desks, lunch tables, kitchens, washrooms, cash registers, seating areas, surface counters, customer service counters, bars, restaurant tables/menus).

The virus that causes COVID-19 may live on surfaces for a few hours or up to a few days. High-touch surfaces can be contaminated and increase the risk of transmission. Use approved hard surface disinfectants.

The frequency (i.e., one contact versus multiple contacts) and duration (i.e., transient contact versus prolonged contact) of exposure to high-touch surfaces and objects could potentially increase the risk of contamination.

Occupational Health and Safety - Including use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

This guidance does not pertain to a high risk setting such as a health care setting.

• Plan for rapid isolation of a symptomatic employee;
• Identify an area where employees/clients can be isolated if they become ill at the workplace;
• Ensure that health care professionals onsite are using appropriate PPE and IPC measures, as per usual procedure.

• Employees who interact in person with the public (within 2 m), or with objects handled by the public, or with spaces occupied by the public, should perform hand hygiene often and between every interaction with members of the public.
• Tools and technologies to minimize contact with the public should be used, such as having customers scan and pack their own purchases when possible.
• Barriers to protect employees who must interact within 2 metres of the public can be considered, such as clear plexiglass screens.
• Workers who are exposed to people who are ill with respiratory symptoms, such as coughing and sneezing, may use face masks and eye protection if the nature of their work warrants it. Gloves are only recommended when workers will be in direct contact with an ill person, or a contaminated object or environment. PPE must be used correctly; training on their use should be provided
• There is no evidence on the usefulness of face masks worn by healthy/asymptomatic persons as a mitigation measure, therefore it is not recommended. Employees should be reminded not to touch their faces.
• Misuse of gloves and other personal protective equipment increases risk of infection due to improper handling of potentially contaminated gloves and equipment. If they must be worn because the staff may come in contact with contaminated material they must be applied correctly (link to instructions in Case and Contact management guidance: Public health management of cases and contacts associated with novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

• Mitigation as above

Returning business travelers from international destinations are currently being advised to self-isolate for symptoms for 14 days following their arrival in Canada. This leads to greater absenteeism if the worker cannot work from home etc.

The evolving nature of the outbreak makes planning travel unpredictable, and international travel comes with the risk of increased exposure, being quarantined abroad, or becoming a contact of a case during plane travel.

• Actively monitor travel advisories and provide information about the risk of travel;
• Cancel all non-essential travel outside of Canada;
• Assess the need for business travel based on the risks and benefits, and consider alternative approaches such as virtually attending meetings; Plan for absenteeism or alternative working arrangements (i.e., teleworking) if international travellers are unable to return to the workplace as per PHA advice.