Episode 75: Tips for Creating a Return to Work Plan

Welcome to the Workplace, a podcast by Cal Chamber. I'm Erica Frank, Cal Chambers Executive Vice President and General Counsel, and with me on the podcast today are Bianca Saad and Matthew Roberts, two of Cal Chambers employment law experts. Together we are going to address a very timely topic, returning to work after the COVID 19 crisis. Welcome, Bianca and Matt.

Thanks, Erica. Happy to be here.

Hi, Erica. Good afternoon.

With so many of us getting back into our offices again, it is critical that certain items are discussed and addressed correctly with employees so that everyone remains safe and productive in our new normal. And oftentimes we hear about or ask about the need for a return to work checklist, which has been very interesting and somewhat of a challenge because we do have many different guidelines out there. So one of the things that Cal Chamber has put together is a return to work checklist that is really designed to apply generally to workplaces, recognizing that there are some specific industries that may require additional considerations. But this return to work checklist is designed to get people thinking about the things to consider so that employers can create their own return to work plan or their own checklist, if you will. So, so Bianca and Matt together, let's go over some of the items of the checklist and just alert our listeners to some of the things they need to consider. Sound good?

Sounds good.

Sounds great.

All right. So with all of the different agencies and health authorities that have been guiding businesses, citizens, individuals, through the COVID 19 pandemic, which is still, still happening right now, we know that a lot of employers and even individuals themselves have tried to figure out, where do we go, what are the websites that we need to be aware of. And at Cal Chamber, we did put together, and it's still up on our website, a COVID 19 resource page. But one of the first places that employers should go to when they are thinking about returning to work and after the businesses open, continually going back to see if things change, because as we've learned, this is still a very fluid situation. So, Bianca, why is it so important to begin with checking government websites for updated laws, regulations, and orders? And what are some of those agency websites that are a good place to start?

Yeah, so it's really critical to stay on top of the agency websites because as we've seen since all of this started, you know, things are very fluid. They're changing constantly. And aside from, you know, the different agencies, and I'll highlight some of those in a moment, the big agencies, you know, whether on a national level or at the state level, what's really critical is that Employers get familiar with their local health department agency. So that's likely going to be on a county wide basis and that could also be at even the city level.

So.

So it's really critical because we do see so much variation amongst locations. Again, depending on how is COVID 19 spreading throughout a particular region or area within California, the guidelines and protocols are going to be different based on your location.

You would know because you cover all of the local ordinance requirements and have been quite busy throughout the last several months just tracking what the locals are doing.

Yeah, yeah, they've been keeping me pretty busy and you know, things are changing constantly, like I said, you know, depending on where you're located. And I was just going to mention, as I promised to highlight some of those other government websites that employers should definitely have, create a bookmark folder, something in your browser. It's a great tool you can stick things on. Like the cdc, they've got guidance for employers that gets updated rather frequently. Also Cal OSHA's website, the Department of Labor, of course, California has its COVID 19 website that follows the results resiliency roadmap that the governor that plan that is issued and we're going through the different stages. So there are a number of agencies that employers, in addition to the local health department are going to want to stay on top of to make sure that the guidance that they are applying is the most current.

Great. Well, that's super helpful. I really like your tip about placing a bookmark on your web browser that makes it easy to quickly look and see what those different agencies are saying. So I know that for on the governor's resilience roadmap, and even with a lot of the local requirements, there's a requirement or a guideline for employers to conduct a risk assessment and then implement the worksite plan. So part of that risk assessment is to really determine what is the organizational risk for not only contracting COVID 19 within the workplace, but spreading it. So, Matt, could you talk a little bit about what the risk assessment entails and what some of the things employers should think about when they're evaluating their risk of COVID 19 workplace exposure?

Yes, Erica, I think the primary thing that employers need to look at first is really their workspace itself. As we know, social distancing is the big thing that the cdc, Cal OSHA and other guidelines are advising to help mitigate the spread of COVID 19. And in the past, our workplaces may have been designed for space reasons, collaborative reasons, but they're not really conducive to social Distancing. So the employers will want to look at how their workspaces are laid out now and where are those kind of bottleneck points? You know, do we have a lot of cubicles who are next to each other? Is there a lot of narrow hallway traffic? That happens. And so this is really the first step is really taking a map of your workspace and figuring out where are those points where we're going to have real difficulty having social distancing in place. And what this may require is looking at those numbers and saying, you know, what, with the way our workplace is spread out, we just may not be able to bring everybody back at the same time. And this will help start to formulate that worksite plan to reduce the workplace exposure.

Okay. And do you know, determining that workplace exposure is going to be really helpful for the employer when they're creating this worksite plan? Because, you know, part of the plan is to take efforts to, of course, first and foremost, maintain the health and safety of the employees, but also customers that are coming in. And, you know, one of the things as we as a society gradually open up and become more comfortable emerging out from the shelter in place orders that we see that we're all in this together and everybody is following the guidelines, everybody is wearing the masks when required. And that could be something that the employer could require as well, which goes to creating that work side plan. So it's a nice segue into, all right, so the employer has, you know, determine what the potential risk could be, if at all. And, you know, how often employees interact with each other, with customers, what does the workplace look like? So, you know, then it comes down to creating a plan. And these plans could be as simple or as detailed as necessary per the workplace. So, you know, Bianca, talk a little bit about how an employer can create their work side plan and what they should be considering when they're developing the plan.

Yeah, that's a great question. So one thing that I want to highlight that might sound very, very obvious, but I think it's worth mentioning is identifying who's actually going to be responsible for creating and implementing the plan. Are you going to have, for example, just one person is falling on the shoulders of one individual? Are there going to be other individuals? And within that, if you're going to have multiple people having it clear as far as who's responsible for what, there are a number of things that you'd want to take into consideration when you're doing that plan. For example, you know, things like, how are you going to support healthy Hygiene practices in the workplace. What does that mean? So supplies, right? Cleaning supplies. Who's going to acquire this? Where are you going to? As we know, you know, a couple months ago it was very difficult to find certain things like hand sanitizer and wipes, you know, having backup vendors if needed, things like that. What about things like daily health checks? When you have your employees coming back to the workplace, is that something that you're going to require them to do? Are you going to require them to do temperature checks? What sort of sanitation protocols and cleaning protocols? And that's a separate area that's actually addressed on the checklist. But again, with the plan, you want to make sure that you are at least setting forth these different categories so that you can put that plan together. It's almost like having a plan for the plan, if that makes any sense. Yeah, it's a number of things, actually.

I like that, the plan for a plan, because you're right, that is part of it. And actually, you know, for those of us that are so wedded to the plans that we make and we don't like to deviate, this could be really challenging for you. Because I think in the environment that we're in right now, the plans have to continually be redrafted or replanned. So I like that. The plan for the plan for the plan.

You know, I say that because the next item that we have on the return to work checklist is part of your plan, should include cleaning and disinfecting protocols. Now, granted, some industries have very specific guidelines that they need to follow as dictated by the CDC or the local health authorities. So again, restaurants, dental offices, medical physician offices, these are just a few that come to mind that do have required cleaning and disinfecting protocols. But all businesses have to implement some kind of cleaning and disinfecting protocol. And as you mentioned, Bianca, before, there was a time, and I think we're still there, where disinfecting wipes are very difficult to find, if at all. So figuring out another alternative. So, Matt, why don't you touch upon some of the cleaning and disinfecting protocols that employers can consider and potentially address and implement in their workplace?

Yeah, so I'll follow up with that. You know, employers may have to get creative or come up with alternative methods for their cleaning and disinfecting as the supplies continue to be kind of touch and go with their availability. Employers got to look at, you know, where are those frequently contacted areas that are going to be part of those concern points that we talked about? When we first assessed the workplace, you know, our reception area, our break rooms where employees will congregate, if we have any kind of kitchens or bathrooms, if we're responsible for that, these areas that are really enclosed, tight spaces where people will interact constantly, is where we really need to focus a lot of our attention on our cleaning and disinfecting protocols and put into place something for the employees, enforcing the hand washing, covering, coughs and sneezes and, you know, using your mask as required. And that's really an important part of these protocols. It's one thing to have a plan, it's another thing to provide the training on how to implement the plan and then the enforcement to ensure that the plan goes forward. These are two very key points, making sure that your reopening is successful with regarding to your cleaning and disinfecting protocols. If you have a meeting in an office workspace, we have, you know, the disinfecting solutions and paper towels, and we spray and wipe off our tables after the meetings and chairs or door handles that are frequently contacted. If we can't hold the doors open, we want to look back at all those frequently contacted places, set the policies in place for what needs to be cleaned, how to clean it, and then enforce it when we don't see it happening.

And I think that's something that a lot of employers, at least contacting the Cal Chamber Labor Law Helpline is how do we enforce, you know, does that mean that we have to have a mask enforcer going through the office reminding employees to, you know, wear their masks? And for a while, it may require a lot of reminding because this is a new way of working. We're no longer in the confines of our homes where we could move about in somewhat of a relaxed fashion, but now being more in the public and interacting with other individuals to be mindful of some of the extra steps that we have to take. And that does go to as well, the next bullet of establishing workplace physical distancing guidelines. And I think the physical distancing guidelines is just as hard as reminding someone to wear a mask, because we're so used to, as a society, shaking hands when we meet somebody being in close quarters for a meeting or somebody coming into the office and sitting down. And the distance between the two individuals may be very close. So there is a lot of changes and thought processes that employers and employees alike have to think about. So, Bianca, why don't you touch upon a few tidbits on physical workplace physical distancing and, and how employers can implement that and Some of the things that they could do to keep the distancing from afar to reduce the spread of COVID 19.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, one of the first things that employers can take a look at is, you know, needing to keep that distance. Is it viable to maintain these, you know, teleworking arrangements that we've already had in place for some time now? So to the extent that employees can still work remotely and that makes sense, that would be an option, again, to limit the amount of traffic within the office or having maybe modified work schedules and staggering of, you know, maybe different employee groups so that again, you're not at, you know, full capacity at any time. It's going to allow more space around the office so people can maintain that physical distancing. Some other things that employers want to think about is, you know, having signage to remind employees because, as you mentioned, this is new way of working and it's going to take some time to get used to having to maintain that distance. You know, when you're looking at your communal areas, such as break rooms, again, the signage is going to be important. And also, what kind of policies either you're required to put in place based on a social distancing protocol that you might be subject to under maybe a local health order, or just based on what is going to work best for your employees. As far as, you know, are you going to have shifts for employees to use the break room? Is there a maximum capacity? Maybe you can only have two or three people in there due to the nature of it. Those are the types of things that you're going to want to be thinking about and be able to address so that you can get your physical distancing protocols in place.

And I think all of this leads to the next component that employers must consider and implement is providing employee training. And I think what we've been talking about here with cleaning and wearing masks, social distancing really does speak to this next component of employee training. And, you know, when I hear of employee training, I think of everybody in a room, in a classroom setting, PowerPoint presentation, you know, Q&As, coffee available to keep everybody, you know, well attended and well, very, you know, paying attention. Matt, is that what we're talking about here when we talk about employee training?

No, not necessarily there. And especially, you know, in light of our social distancing we just talked about, we probably can't do it that way effectively anymore. Training is really just under these contexts, is really just providing the information to the employees. This goes back to the government Websites being a real handy tool for us. The CDC guidelines have great infographics, real simple steps on how to do some of these things. For example, how to properly wear a mask. You know, you'll frequently see people with the mask pulled down below their nose, which I totally get as a glasses wearer. My glasses will fog up, you know, with the mask on, but that's not rendering the mask useful in that case. And so we've got to be able to train the employees that, you know, we understand how you'd like to wear, but this is the appropriate way to wear it. Informing employees of what symptoms to look out for and how to self check yourself again with the CDC website helps a lot. And that can just be as little as sending an email out, both a link to the CDC symptom checker, as well as a list of what the symptoms currently recognized are. And of course, recognizing that we're continuing to learn about the virus and that these things may be subject to change. Which is why, you know, we check the CDC website all the time. But again, it's signage. You know, when we're in the restroom, we've got signs up that both encourages the hand washing as well as, you know, a few steps to show how to effectively wash their hands and, you know, encouraging employees who just may have any kind of concerns about their own underlying health conditions without really divulging those to be able to come forward to the employer and say, hey, you know, I have these. I'm at risk, you know, for serious effects of the disease. You know, how can. What is it that I can do to help keep myself safe, and what is it that the employer can do? So again, not really, you know, something where we put together a seminar and we have a PowerPoint presentation, that kind of thing. But really simple tool signs, infographics, lists, emails, these things can provide all the training that's required for employers to now start to implement that plan. We've talked about creating.

Great. And actually, that's a fantastic segue because once we've addressed all of these issues that we've talked about, then we're ready to create that plan. And in addition to creating the plan on how to prevent the spread and minimize and mitigate the risks, there is a chance that we might have an employee who does come down with COVID 19 or is ill or has symptoms or a diagnosis. And one of the things we need to consider when we're creating our master plan is how are we going to address those situations where we have an employee that calls out and lets us know that either they're experiencing symptoms or they've been diagnosed. And this is somewhat of a very touchy issue because there is medical privacy concerns. Bianca, can you touch base a little bit on how, what employers can be thinking about and where they can go for more information about addressing employees who are experiencing COVID 19 symptoms or have been diagnosed?

Yeah, definitely. So in terms of, you know, where an employer is going to go for guidance on this, the CDC does have, you know, they're a great resource, obviously, and they have recommended steps that an employer would need to take if an employee has been accepted, exposed or has been diagnosed. And also, you know, as I mentioned before, the local health department is also going to be another important piece of that. You touched on something really important with, you know, with respect to employee privacy. So that's one of the things that you're not going to want to do, right, is if you know that an employee has been exposed to COVID 19 or they have in fact tested positive for COVID 19, you're not going to disclose their identity, right, to the rest of the workplace. You do want to make sure that an employee is separated, you know, removed from work. So they shouldn't be in the workplace if they have been exposed or they've been diagnosed or if they have symptoms. If they're experiencing symptoms, they should, you know, remain at home until that 14 day period has cleared. Or again, this is where the guidance is going to come in, depending on what particular category the employee is falling under. And then the other thing to keep in mind is, you know, even having a plan in place if you, if an employee does become ill at the workplace and they actually need assistance getting transported home, you know, these are things that we might not be thinking about, but they can come up. And so having a plan for those types of situations is going to be helpful.

And I think that's really important to remind everybody, particularly with enforcing our, you know, whatever our policies are as far as if you're not feeling well, please stay home. And of course, when people are calling out because they're not feeling well, you know, really try not to inquire any further. In fact, you shouldn't be inquiring any further, you know, because there could be a variety of reasons why somebody's not feeling well having nothing to do with COVID 19. So that's a nice reminder for folks as well. So putting this all together, there's one more thing that we want to talk about and this touches upon where we began with a discussion of local health authority requirements, local health guidelines. Matt, can you talk a little bit about what's some of the state and local posting requirements may be as it relates to reopening?

Yeah, so we will go back to the beginning and get to know your local health department. They're going to be a great resource as we continue to navigate reopening, both for compliance issues, but as well as resources and kind of guidance on how to handle maybe some of the trickier issues that we run across. As you know, we navigate a landscape we've never navigated before. Some of the local health departments will have posting requirements, and that's what you'll want to check with with your local health. By way of example, LA county has certain posting requirements depending on your industry, and that's located within their public health order governing the rules around, you know, COVID 19 the governor's resilience Roadmap also has checklists that they would like the employers to post once they've followed each of the boxes and they've implemented everything that they were supposed to implement on their way to reopening. So stay in touch with the state government, stay in touch with your local health department and really get to know them because they will be that best resource for hopefully getting us through to the other side of this one.

Erica well, fantastic. Yes. And I can't emphasize enough, as we've talked about several times, to please continue checking because we are finding that things are definitely evolving. And part of it, the evolution is this is all new. And you know, with anything that's new, sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error. And here you want to make sure that the trial and error doesn't involve the health and safety of other individuals out there, whether they're family members, employees, customers, whomever you run into on a daily basis. So, Matt and Bianca, thank you again so much for coming onto the podcast on such a really important topic. I know our listeners always enjoy listening to the three of us talk about important issues such as this. And thank you all for joining us on the Workplace. Please comment, share and subscribe to Cal Chambers podcast by visiting calchamber.com.