We understand that every hospitality organisation is unique. Our guide is simply intended to prompt businesses to think about the responsibility each one of us has to reduce risk. Implementing specific measures within their own environment will help make their workplace safe.
1. Risk Assessments
As an employer, you have a legal responsibility to safeguard your employees and others to ensure health and safety risks are minimal. You must all understand that it is impossible to completely eliminate the risk of COVID-19. One way to mitigate the risk is by undertaking a risk assessment to identify the risks associated with your individual premises and work activities.
Guidance regarding COVID-19 risk assessments can be found on the HSE website. Obtaining support from your workforce to identify the risks can be a great way to provide inclusion for your team and allow them to recognise the extents of the business efforts to safeguard there well-being.
Some key areas to focus on to take into account when conducting a risk assessment:
- Increasing the frequency of hand washing and cleaning.
- If it’s possible; encourage working from home. Where not possible, comply to social distancing guidelines.
- Where social distancing is not possible, mitigate the risk to staff and others by enforcing the use of PPE and sanitisation.
- Where appropriate, use screens or barriers to separate people from each other.
- Where appropriate utilise one-way traffic systems for footfall
- Ensure textiles within the workplace meet thermal decontamination and are determined ‘safe’ to use.
2. Hygiene
Good hygiene across all settings is vital to maintain the reduction of transmission. Ensure hand washing is always inline with government guidelines.
Ensure professionally clean and safe workwear is provided to all employees to safeguard themselves and others. Take the responsibility away from the individual to ensure your business is as COVID-19 secure as possible.
WHO is recommended a cotton textile to be used when drying hands after hand washing. Consider using individual face cloths as hand towels and have them professionally cleaned.
3. Staff Protection
The most important thing to bare in mind when protecting your workforce is the routes of transmission. Work out what actions can be done to reduce high risk contact areas of your organisation. Improve ventilation by opening windows and doors, regularly sanitise the identified high risk areas whilst implementing a cleaning schedule.
Ensure PPE is utilised across the organisation in the form of face covers, disposable aprons and gloves.
We’re manufacturing re-usable face covers for as little as £3.49 each. Get in touch for more information.
Read More: 3 Benefits of a Re-usable Face Cover
We’d highly recommend providing your team with workwear to facilitate changing onsite after every shift.
4. Utilise COVID Secure Textiles
Operating a hospitality organisation in normal circumstances can be challenging. Balancing the operational requirements with customer expectations is always fun. Now we have the added responsibility regarding How to Make Hospitality Organisations COVID19 Secure.
One way of reducing operational requirements and protecting the interests of your guests and organisation is to utilise a commercial laundry service. Why? A commercial laundry service has the facilities and processes in place to accommodate the decontaminating requirements the fluctuating demand of the hospitality industry.
We ensure all textiles reach thermal and chemical decontamination to provide COVID secure textiles for use and remove the operational burden to clean large volumes. Most providers will provide a fixed cost per item which allows you to accurately cost your textile requirements and reduce your operational headaches.
5. Look for Value
During these strange times, it would be sensible to review supply changes. Reflect on which suppliers have been supportive through the pandemic, and which providers has continually tried to financial crucify you through lockdowns. Ask yourself, are they truly a partner you want to work with?
The answer will obviously be no.
It’s easy to focus on the ‘white paper’ cost of a service. Are you really comparing red apples with red apples? Cheap is never cheerful, and cheap is never best value.
It’s best value we should concentrate our efforts to achieve in a supply partner. Does your supplier deal with issues efficiently, or do they bury their heads and fail to respond? Do they deliver on time? Do they charge you for hidden fees? Is their reject rate unacceptable?
We provide probably the best valued service in the industry to ensure your organisation works like clockwork and without hassle.
