WORKPLACE COMPLIANCE EXPERT’S VIEW
GREG DAVIES, DIRECTOR OF MARKET DEVELOPMENT, ASSURITY
CONSULTING
Be it property and premises moves, agile
working, health, safety and wellbeing,
security, cleaning, HVAC, maintenance,
logistics and risk, they are all everyday
activities for FM. So, the challenges being
thrown up by COVID-19 are, with one or two
exceptions, not new to our industry, they’re
just happening more quickly.
Equally the health and safety
responsibilities placed upon employers,
property owners and premises managers
remain. These duties, hopefully in the short
term, recognises the need to protect employees and other building users
against exposure to COVID-19, as far as is reasonably practicable.
Social distancing and restrictions on non-essential movement does mean
less people are using our o ices, shops, schools, factories and leisure facilities.
However, the unintended consequences of fully or partially unoccupied
premises coupled with the reductions in sta and the specialist support
available to manage them, create their own issues. For example, statutory
inspections, air and water quality, security or cleaning, all need to be managed
and maintained.
For those working remotely, some tasks may be the same, but the
environment will have changed. So, advice and support on everything from
setting up workstations (DSE), wellbeing (e.g. supervision, contact, workload),
communication and even manual handling could be needed. If sta require
infrequent but ‘essential’ access to your premises during ‘lockdown’ have the
procedures, locations and services changed and therefore what information
do these individuals now need? These are all questions for the FM.
If you don’t already have procedures in place, some of the issues you should
be considering are:
• Where the management of your building systems and services have
changed, review risk assessments and operation and adapt controls
accordingly.
• Factor in appropriate control measures and government advice for reducing
the spread of COVID-19 to all your schemes of management and controls.
• Provide information to sta working remotely on relevant issues, such as
advice on DSE and manual handling, as well as information security.
• Check the availability of first aiders and fire wardens for premises that are
still operating and adjust advice and information for them as required.
• Review your critical systems/those a ected by statutory compliance. Draw
up a list of which of these may be adversely impacted during ‘lockdown’
and prioritise actions, isolation and alternative provision as needed.
• Contact your specialist suppliers and contractors to identify where service
provision may be adversely a ected in the coming weeks and the possible
impact of this.
• Check stocks/availability of, for example, treatment chemicals, fuels,
components, filters and other consumables. Assess the quantities held
against likely usage over the period of interruption and target activity
around any shortfalls.
• Amend and adjust the provision of cleaning and security activities to reflect
building use/occupation.
• Review the levels of training required for any enhanced or changed roles for
sta and the means of delivering this.
• Agree any revisions needed for emergency or urgent works with your
specialist contractors.
Our hospitals and healthcare premises are unfortunately seeing significant
increase in the demands on the buildings, systems and services. The
22 APRIL 2020
challenges here will be ones of logistics, utilisation and supply. While most
hospitals plan for major incidents, including pandemics, few will have
considered an event of this size or scale. Most activities will be reactive or at
best planned in the short term, so that the problem solving role of FM will be
critical.
Once the pandemic is over, and it will end, the work for FMs will be around
re-mobilisation and a return to business as usual. So what planning needs
to occur now in your organisation to facilitate this? COVID-19 is proving to be
nasty, unwelcome, unpredictable and disruptive. But as the science, clinicians
and epidemiologists will help us beat the disease, so the skillsets of the FM
should position us to more broadly recover from it.
COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT’S VIEW
SIMON BURLISON, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, MONEYPENNY
One of the most critical ways that FMs can
help to keep vital buildings operational
during a time of national crisis, is to make it
easy for people to stay away and observe the
social distancing rules. That means having
the right communications infrastructure in
place to deal with a dramatic influx of calls
and enquiries from families of patients, to
other service providers, sta , visitors and
volunteers.
During a time of unprecedented change
like this, there’s a real spike in people
reaching out for support. People feel
panicked and use the phone to seek reassurance from professionals – be it
health, legal, financial. While hospitals and other healthcare providers might
be able to divert some calls, a shi in working patterns coupled with stretched
resource and heightened call volumes, is a recipe for disaster. Phones ringing
out are a distraction for vital healthcare workers, and unanswered calls could
result in people arriving at hospitals when they should really stay away.
Hospitals and other vital businesses need to be able to scale-up their
support services, including call handling and live chat on their websites, and
should look for suppliers who can respond quickly to make that happen.
Answering calls, queries and chats in a timely and professional manner helps
to ensure that vital buildings are operational and e icient and that on-site
resources are used wisely.
As admin and support sta aren’t considered key workers, many will be
trying to work from home but this presents many challenges. With schools
closed and children at home, there are more distractions to contend with and
increased tra ic across internet connections, which could limit broadband
speed and therefore productivity. Managing remote working safely and
e iciently usually requires putting solid foundations in place, but many
organisations haven’t had that luxury due to the speed of this pandemic. To
support employees during this period of transition, FMs should ensure that IT
helpdesks have the capacity to handle the inevitable spike in calls from those
suddenly working from home and be able to recommend appropriate remote
working tools to help employees cope.
Managing o ice calls remotely, be that with a fulling outsourced or overflow
telephone answering service or even a digital switchboard, is vital during
this period. These services ensure that the flow of information in and out of
an organisation remains uninterrupted without compromising employee
safety or ignoring the challenges of the current situation. This sort of agility
is essential in the current climate and benefits organisations and remote
employees alike.
Do you have a question that you’d like
answered by the FMJ Clinic?
Email: sara.bean@kpmmedia.co.uk
FM CLINIC
Greg Davies
Simon Burlison
ADVICE & OPINION
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