Ready for your Business to Relaunch? Must Know Tips for Success

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Did you hear? The governors of some of the nation’s most populous states just announced they have begun to plan when it would be safe to reopen their economies in the wake of COVID.

“We have to start planning, restarting life,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference before the announcement. “This is not a light switch that we can just flick one day and everything goes back to normal. (But) we’re going to have to restart that economy. We’re going to have to restart a lot of systems that we shut down abruptly and we need to start to plan for that.”

Did you hear? The governors of some of the nation’s most populous states just announced they have begun to plan when it would be safe to reopen their economies in the wake of COVID.

In the eyes of a business owner or company manager like you, this news is a relief. You must now ask yourself, “Am I prepared to relaunch my business?” For many this would be a simple answer… YES! There are lots of elements to be considered when reopening. We’re going to cover all of the challenges you could face and provide solutions to overcome them.

So let’s get started!

Direct Challenges to Your Staff

When you furloughed your staff or closed your doors, I am sure many thoughts of uncertainty crossed your mind. At that point, most concerns were focused around the loss of income and livelihood of your company. One thing that has been sort of an afterthought for many has been the outcome of keeping your team as a part of your company. Many employers assume that all of their staff will jump right back in and start working the second their business is reopened. For a larger percentage of people, this just isn’t the case and here’s why:

School & Daycare Closure

With schools and daycares remaining closed, many people will not have a way to ensure their children are looked after if they resume their normal work life. With the estimated projection for social distancing being 2 months or more, many people will need to make arrangements to stay home. One or both of the parents would then be taking over the full-time caregiver role for their kids.

Not only will parents need to take care of their kids, but without schools, most parents are having to become a full-time teacher. We all know that taking care of children can be a handful, but adding homeschooling is a full-time job in itself.

While many parents traditionally have childcare planned out for each summer when school is normally closed, this summer is going to be different. No more depending on weekday programs or camps, babysitters, or daycares. As of now, these options are very limited and people are thinking towards the future and how to make sure their families are taken care of. Afterall, even if the economy does open up, social distancing restrictions especially for our youth, sick, and elderly are going to hold strong for a while.

Health Concerns

Let’s face it, no matter who you are or where you live in the world… at some point, each of us have been concerned about how COVID would affect either ourselves or our loved ones. Some people worry more than others, that is inevitable. Some have good reason to be more cautious than others. Here is what we are finding to be the main reasons why people are choosing to stay home when it comes to health concerns:

Ill or elderly loved ones at home

Statistics have shown that the weaker and elderly are hit harder by this infection. Many of the people who’ve died thus far, fall under this category. For this reason, people are being very cautious with jumping back in to work at the office. They want to safeguard their loved ones.

Others infected at your place of work

We are seeing a trend in workers not wanting to return to work if they’ve heard of another team member getting sick from the virus. This scenario brings COVID too close to home for some and they feel frightened and want to avoid work at all costs.

Small kids at home

While the numbers have shown most kids aren’t affected by COVID as much, the idea of little ones getting sick is like a nightmare for some. Mama bear and Papa Bear instincts kick in and parents don’t want to take the risk of bringing the virus home. Family overall mindset.

Employee doesn’t feel safe at work

We are also seeing a trend where the employers aren’t taking the extreme measures needed to make employees feel safe. Some of these measures could be as simple as setting up a Wellness Check Station, or getting a daily Sanitization Specialist/Janitor to keep the work environment sterel. If the employee feels unsafe at all, there is a good chance they won’t want to come into work for that organization during the pandemic.

Unemployment Benefits Boosted

Over the last month the US has been sent into a panic. Everyone has adapted the mentality of living day by day. As a human, this is a great thing to practice… but in terms of business it may be working against us a little bit in this current moment.

To date, 925,450 Californians have been laid off due to COVID-19. Each of those people on state unemployment and, for the first time every, self employed and freelancers will be receiving $600 extra per week, in addition to any regular unemployment wage. In California they use a formula that reviews the prior 18 months of quarterly wages and unemployment is paid out at 55% of their normal earnings in this period, for a max of $450 per week. With that said, people who are receiving the maximum will be earning close to $26.25 an hour compared to if they were working a full time job. So someone who earns between $42k-$55k normally a year is making more on unemployment and employers might have challenges with trying to offer those individuals their jobs back.

This is a huge boost from our government for many in need and will help out greatly. However, for those people who normally make $20 an hour or less, it may be even more of a challenge to be motivated to come back into work. “People may be motivated to quit their jobs to get higher pay through unemployment,” said Gary Burtless, an economist and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a left-leaning think tank. The in-the-now mentality is sometimes reinforced with programs like these.

The government has set up this plan to last for 13 weeks. With that said, over the next 4-6 months we anticipate a high demand in staffing to cover all of the people who will be accepting this extended stimulus aid past the date when jobs are again available.

And how is the decline of people interested in working going to affect our job market as a whole? This is a time that companies need a strong staff source to be prepared to have people there to help them run their business with the lack of staffing.

How to keep your business running without your normal staff.

The good news is that you don’t have to worry about any of this! While you’ve grown accustomed to having your original employees and well established team making your business run smoothly and successfully, WE HAVE OPTIONS! We are highly skilled in finding amazing candidates to fill and excel in virtually any position you may have open. The great part about working with us is we place Temporary employees – for however long you need! We can set you up as early as tomorrow. This is what we are suggesting to all businesses during this period. That way, you have the staff that you need NOW and can rehire your original staff when they are ready to come back. Win-win!

Here are some other tips for setting up your business (Safety Wise) for your relaunch!

Safety Upgrades to Your Workspace

Installing high-efficiency air filters.

Increasing ventilation rates in the work environment.

Set up a Wellness Check Station at your work.

Installing physical barriers, such as clear plastic sneeze guards.

Installing a drive-through window for customer service.

Specialized negative pressure ventilation in some settings, such as for aerosol generating procedures (e.g., airborne infection isolation rooms in healthcare settings and specialized autopsy suites in mortuary settings).

Make sure to have a sanitization specialist on board to sterilize your workspace throughout each day.

Safety Changes for Management

Make changes in work policy or procedures to reduce or minimize exposure to a hazard. Make sure that all management positions are in charge of the following:

Reminding sick workers to stay at home.

Establishing alternating days or extra shifts that reduce the total number of employees in a facility at a given time, allowing them to maintain distance from one another while maintaining a full onsite work week.

Providing workers with up-to-date education and training on COVID-19 risk factors and protective behaviors (e.g., cough etiquette and care of PPE).

Training workers who need to use protective clothing and equipment how to put it on, use/wear it, and take it off correctly, including in the context of their current and potential duties. Training material should be easy to understand and available in the appropriate language and literacy level for all workers.

Depending on your line of business, some of the above may be unnecessary. But as any risk manager can tell you, where there is an exposure, there should be a control. If you need help with anything, please reach out to us today or at least setup an account so Hire Up can be there for you with those “what if” situations that hopefully don’t come up. We’ve heard of businesses walking in on a Monday to everyone having called out sick and there’s no one there at all to help with anything the business needs. What would you do? Are you ready to call a service and get someone in to help you? Hire Up has a large inventory of people who are serious about working. Where there’s a will, there’s a way! Hire Up helps you on your way to continuing to have a success business.

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