How Your Contracting Business Can Make Workers Feel Safe to Come Back to the Site

At first, no one wanted to stay home. And now, it seems much more difficult to get people to leave. Although you’ll find pockets of the population that are more than ready to go back to business as usual, a lot of people are worried. Not just for themselves, but for their loved ones. Getting back to some level of normal is going to take time. But if you want your employees to continue working on projects at a faster pace, once you’re allowed to do so, you’ll need to persuade them to come back to the jobsite. Here are a few things to try.

Clarify All Concerns
Your employees may have a variety of concerns, and you will not know what they are until you ask. For example, you may be dealing with workers who:

• Are immune-compromised
• Have immune-compromised relatives living with them at home
• Need to work in close quarters related to their jobs
• Are still recovering from the effects of COVID-19, even if they are no longer contagious

Your goal should be to get a very clear sense for what each of your employees needs to feel comfortable coming back to the job site. This might include gradually phasing in work hours, using more PPE then indicated for the task at hand, or establishing clear protocols for social distancing.

Established and Maintain Updated Safety Protocols
Ideally, you should already have a set of safety protocols that your employees can read and confirm while they are working or on their own time. This is a good opportunity to evaluate how well your current system is working, and make changes as necessary. By this point, pretty much everybody knows that you should remain six feet apart and use masks to minimize the spread of airborne germs. You may need to add extra information, such as the importance of regular hand-washing and the cleaning of equipment after use. If you make it easy to do, people will be more likely to follow it.

Incorporate Onsite Work Gradually
For employees who have been working exclusively remotely for some time, it may take several weeks or a few months to get used to working full-time on the jobsite again. To help people get accustomed to new systems and protocols for working on projects, you may want to start by limiting the amount of time they have to spend on the site. For example, you might have someone work on site two days a week and remotely for the other three. This allows them to adjust without pushing them to dramatically increase productivity at the same time.

Offer Flexibility Where Possible
The pandemic has changed the lives of billions of people. What your employees may need the most is flexibility to adapt to a changing world. Of course, you cannot simply abandon projects and expect to keep an income for your business. However, where you can find flexibility to give to others, you should do your best to make sure it happens. This might include offering flexibility in the timing of shifts, so that you have fewer workers on the site at the same time. That helps you keep a higher level of productivity while making everyone feel more comfortable about their personal risk level.

Prepare for Future Changes
You probably already understand that nothing about this pandemic is guaranteed. It’s not even like many other kinds of viruses, where you get it once and then you are immune for life. There is a high likelihood that there will be another resurgence of COVID-19 in 2020 or another point in the future. Be prepared for the possibility that you will encounter an increase in jobsite restrictions, while the state and federal governments wait on developments for better treatments or a vaccine. Having plans in advance to adapt as needed will help to keep your employees more informed, which can also lower their stress.

Getting back to business is going to be difficult after COVID-19. Your contracting business’s survival depends on it. To learn more about starting your career as a licensed contractor, contact CSLS today!