Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 10 www.hrreporter.com Keeping your distance: Safety's new priority Social distancing may have started as an emergency safety measure but it will likely continue for the long term as a way to prevent new outbreaks, finds John Dujay of caution and "shooting for much more; they're spreading that out even farther," says Salveta. "A lot of companies are taking a 20- or 30-per-cent capacity, which is resulting in much more than six feet of social distancing." Some employers are placing desks as far as 12 feet apart so that there is more leeway for fellow workers, he says. "If you place them six or eight feet apart, regularly during the day, people are going to get inside that barrier." Newer technologies Another consideration? New technolo- gies that can help people keep their distance. For example, Safeteams in Montreal has developed a system that features When people get back to work, "smart organizations are going to keep good work practices because it's also good for the common flu, which can dissipate [and] decimate an organization as well," says Salveta. Distancing key to continued safety Despite the promising news around vaccines — as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau clings to the government's September targe t of having all Canadians who want inoculation being given shots — it's not the magic bullet that will make everybody safe, so distancing will still make sense, says an occupational nurse. "There's research that shows the virus can still lodge in the front of your nasal cavities and so, even if you've been vacci- nated, you could potentially breathe it out onto someone," says Geoffrey Thompson of the Manitoba Federation of Labour Occupational Health Centre in Winnipeg. "There's a concern [that] vaccinated people should still wear masks and keep their distance, even if they've been vaccinated." With this murky picture becoming evident, "workplaces are going to be challenged to parse that [social distancing] language if you do get vacci- nated, to continue to respect those rules around social distancing and wearing a mask," he says. Once offices and workplaces are repopulated, the six-foot or two-metre rule that has been mandated by public health bodies since nearly the beginning of the pandemic will be enforced but many workplaces are erring on the side clips to be worn on belts or clothing that help to enforce social distancing and "talk" to each other. "There is a soft light notification if people are within two metres [of each other] for too long of a period, longer than 30 seconds," says Symon Edmonds, marketing director. But the company maintains that the device is not meant to admonish or reprimand employees. "It is there as a reminder more than an enforcer, meaning we're not in the position to tell people what to do or check what they're doing. We're there to remind them that they should social distance," says Simon St-Germain, marketing director at PixMob, a smart wearable company that launched Safeteams. "It's a red blinking light when they're too close to each other. I call it a friendly reminder." The Safeteams' product also provides contact tracing. "Looking at how long each individual has spent in the time of someone else with anonymized data on our back end, and if there is a positive COVID case, you can go back and see who that person has interacted with," says Edmonds. "You can potentially get people to self-isolate or interview those people to KEEPING A DISTANCE IN THE CANADIAN WORKPLACE "Organizations are going to take best practices that were learned around social distancing, and it's going to stick." Mike Salveta, Pivotal Integrated HR Solutions 31% Percentage of decision-makers who say ensuring enough space to social distance is the biggest OHS challenge 50% Percentage of business leaders who believe it will be logistically difficult to enforce social distancing at work 73% Percentage of decision- makers who will limit the number of employees who can be in shared spaces 50% Percentage of decision- makers who will not downsize but will change the type of space they have WHILE hard to imagine at this point, the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic will lessen as the virus subsides and people return to their daily routines. But how will workplace health and safety change in a post-pandemic world? Will employees need to be constantly reminded about the six-foot rule? How will privacy of data fit into the safety measures? "Social distancing is going to be here to stay for a while, COVID or no COVID," says Mike Salveta, president of HR solu- tions at Pivotal Integrated HR Solutions in Mississauga, Ont. When SARS hit Canada in 2003, there were "many pandemic plans and action plans that were put in place; they all drained away in time," he says. However, with COVID being much more wide- spread, things may be different. "A lot of organizations are going to take some of the best practices that were learned around social distancing, and it's going to stick for a while." Sources: Foko Retail, Get Working

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