With the profusion of COVID-19 related information readily available, it’s critical to focus on the things you can control and to create an action-based plan of attack. While creating long-term plans is important, there are actions that should be taken today.
It makes sense to start with identifying the resources and tools that you need to successfully protect employees. Once you’ve established buy-in from leadership, develop a dedicated task force (if possible) that combines EHS, quality, production, human resources and other internal shareholders who can help develop a return-to-work strategy. Once that task force has been created, the next step is to identify the tools required to address this.
Gaining Insights from Organizations Who Launched Employee Benefit-Focused COVID-19 Response Programs
Since the outbreak of this pandemic, there have been some companies that have introduced some innovative solutions to manage issues they have faced related to COVID-19. These success stories have served as inspiration for other organizations to follow suit. A case in point is Ally Financial, a bank holding company, which rolled out an extensive COVID-19 response program. Of the new practices and benefits it has introduced, the most impactful ones include:
• Employees are eligible to receive a $1,200 tax-free financial assistance payment to help cover costs due to having to work from home
• 100% coverage for COVID-19-related diagnostic testing and medical appointments
• Immediate paid medical leave for those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19
While employee benefits are a key component to addressing the socio-economic impacts of this crisis, for some industries, there are EHS management issues are best addressed via technology (both hardware and software) and the introduction of new or enhanced safety and risk-related policies.
Now let’s look at the solution through a different lens – through the role of technology.
The Resources and Tools to Help Address COVID-19 Related Challenges
For labor-intensive industries, part of the solution is sourcing new or improved equipment and personal protective equipment for employees. Equally important tools include EHS safety management systems to manage the challenges and solutions they face because of COVID-19. While each industry is different, as are individual organizations, the list of required resources and tools can vary across the board.
Sharing Actionable, Technology-Leveraging Responses from Our Customers
As leaders in ESHQ management systems and software, our customers turn to us to help address key health and safety challenges. These include:
| Issue or Challenge | How Our Software Solution Effectively Addressed the Problem (Use Cases) |
| The need for robust employee inquiry and confirmed case reporting capabilities | Using our solution, they created workflows and actions plans to: • track exposures (and prevent further spread) • provide symptom reporting • enable team leads to provide instructions to employees working in the field or from home |
| Ineffective supply tracking and management of personal protective equipment (PPE) | They configured our software to: • track the PPE volumes at each facility • the number of units available across suppliers • analyze usage trends to predict when a facility may be at risk of running out of supplies |
| The need for robust case tracking and dashboard features at the executive level | • Through solutions we offer, specifically our application builder, they created an executive dashboard to track the potential sources of COVID-19 infections globally (our highly secure environment ensured the privacy the health information of over 50,000 employees) |
That’s just the tip of the iceberg!
To explore all customer success use cases, you can access our infographic here.
