Five Considerations for Selecting Your COVID-19 Screening Solution
There are several COVID-19 screening solutions available right now, from digital to non-digital. As we mentioned in our latest Screening Tools post, all of them can help businesses assess the risk of their employees having the virus, spreading it in the workplace, and can help minimize the second wave. The checklist below can help you decide which screening tool is the best one for your business and needs.
1. How many employees do you have? How many will use the screening solution?
If you are managing a large organization of over 100 employees, chances are you don’t speak to each individual every day. It may be hard to manage and track paper screening, especially with having to assess that many employees. Plus, you likely do not have all employees coming into the workplace on the same day.
With all of this in mind, bigger firms would benefit from adopting a digital COVID screening tool g at home, to keep everything organized and easily backtracked. Ensuring that team members are aware of procedures and keeping an open channel of communication can go a long way to ensure compliance with the new legislation.
On the other hand, if you manage a small business of under 5 employees, a pencil COVID and paper screening before entering the office, construction site, or restaurant can be useful. However, across every industry and business, digital is always an option to consider due to it being contactless and cost-effective.
2. Do your employees commute to work?
If your employees take public transportation to and from work, it might be important to adopt a digital screening tool so they are not exposed to potential risk (or a risk to others) on their way to the office.
Remember, employers need to ensure safety procedures as per Ontario Health and Safety are being followed while taking every reasonable precaution. Moreover, no detail can be overlooked right now, especially when a commute to work means a higher risk of infection.
Not everyone has access to a private vehicle so it is also important to keep the needs of your employees during this difficult time in mind. As always, stress the importance of wearing a face-covering mask and social distancing practices.
3. Do you have Ontario-based operations?
If your answer is yes, it will be imperative to follow the Ministry of Health’s mandates as they relate to provincial requirements. The government has made it easy to use its paper-based COVID-19 screening tool. However, it is your responsibility to ensure the consistency and efficiency of the tests you carry out. A digital COVID-19 screening solution will provide historical records of compliance.
4. How are you ensuring employee health privacy?
Again, the use of physical paper or a quick email/text or having an employee screen other employees at the door before entering might be applicable to a smaller business. However, that information is classified as Personal Health Information and as such, is required to be kept secure. Access to the results must be kept private. There should be no sharing of information across employees. With a paper-based system, there is a risk that the health of employees could be disclosed; a digital tool ensures protection of privacy.
5. How are you documenting responses?
While the mandate doesn’t require historical information, business owners should keep information on hand for at least a two week period. Why? Because we’ve already seen instances of organizations falling outside of compliance when Public Health and Health and Safety visit due to an outbreak. A digital screening tool saves all historical tests. As a result, it allows for quick assistance in contact tracing and easy proof of compliance should the need arise.
Ready to implement a digital screening tool for your workplace? Learn more about our suite of COVID-19 Screening solutions, including Return to Workplace and Return to School. Or, book a demo directly to find out more.
