Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

October 7, 2020June 29, 2023

COVID-19 contact tracing goes mobile to keep BNBuilders employees on the job

Mobile technology continues to help remodel the construction industry.

From drones snapping aerial photos to safety improvements to employee clock ins, construction sites have become far more efficient in their day-to-day operations in part because of mobile technology.

Few construction executives, however, could have predicted that mobile technology would play such an important role as COVID-19 disrupted job sites across the nation. Employee safety was the primary concern for construction company BNBuilders. And Shawn Namdar, solutions engineer for the Seattle-based company, was deeply involved in creating a novel form of mobile technology that allowed his employer to keep people safe on the job.

Also read: Time and attendance management implementation is about more than just punching a clock

“When the initial lockdown went into effect in March, a small subset of our jobs and workers were categorized as essential, so we needed to determine a set of procedures for keeping them open and active while maintaining social distance and the recommended health checks,” Namdar said.

Contact tracing mobile solution

Contact tracing presented a particularly difficult prospect to monitor, Namdar added. BNBuilders executives realized they needed a process to document people on location. With 850 total employees — 485 of whom are hourly and 730 assigned to job sites stretching from Seattle to the Bay area, Los Angeles and San Diego — they needed to track who came in contact with whom and whether anyone had been exposed to someone with symptoms.

Senior leadership sent everyone home and met for back-to-back working sessions to come up with a solution “fast,” Namdar said.

Also read: Automate how your staff clocks in and out

The meetings helped determine and establish a safe standard of job-site processes and operations that are compliant with government regulations, he added.

Separate solution from clocking in

“It was clear that we needed a sign-in process for all individuals on a job site,” Namdar recalled. The company had transitioned to digital time cards about six years ago, so this was a completely separate challenge, he added.

“Our IT director was in the meeting and interjected that a technology-based solution would allow us to maintain social distancing and prevent the spread of germs through shared pens and a sign-in sheet. That’s where I came in,” he said.

In one day, Namdar pulled together an on-site mobile check-in form developed using process automation software Nintex and presented a demo to his HR director and executive superintendent.

mobile technology — Shawn Namdar, solutions engineer for BNBuilders.

“The next day, the executive team approved the process and we were off to the races on the production side,” he said.

Also read: Building a safety policy was vital to Shawmut Design and Construction’s health.

When workers arrive at a job, there is a specific QR code and once scanned, the form populates with the specific information for a particular job site. Namdar also created a database for workers, and by just typing in their phone number, their information is pulled so multiple pieces of information don’t have to be re-entered each day.

“In just a few days, we went from zero entries to thousands,” he said. “In the six months since implementing this mobile check-in process, we have seen 144,000 form submissions.”

Complying with government guidelines

Initially HR played a large role in ensuring that the processes were compliant with government regulations and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, he said.

“They paid close attention to the types and phrasing of the questions we asked,” Namdar said. “HR had a big hand in the vetting and rollout process to make sure it was a solution that was easy to use by all.”

As a general contractor, BNBuilders executives are responsible for the safety of everyone on the job site. Safety is the absolute top priority on their job sites and the contact tracing process is one key reason they can continue operating, he said.

BNBuilders’ offices are operating at minimal capacity and serving as a command center for safety and critical departments such as IT and accounting, he said.

Case study: Hoffer Plastics’ ‘family first’ philosophy puts people over profits.

“We’ve seen a lot of success with our office workers working from home,” Namdar said. We didn’t experience the initial productivity slump that was common within the industry because our organization had prioritized digital transformation before the pandemic.”

Adopting the mobile check in

Pivoting so quickly to the on-site mobile check-in process happened quickly since they had previous success with Nintex digital forms and workflows, he said. “Without it we would have been contact tracing with pen and paper and manually inputting that information at the end of each day,” he said. “I could create a custom web app in only a day, which could have taken three to four weeks if I was starting from zero.

“Technology speeds everything up and if organizations aren’t leveraging it, they are limiting themselves.”

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March 20, 2020October 18, 2024

Fingerprint scanners risky amid coronavirus pandemic — it’s a touchy subject

As COVID-19 cases rapidly increase all around the world, businesses, public servants, government officials and health care workers continue to take the necessary precautions to try to stop the spread.

Not only are large events such as conferences, sporting events, religious services and music festivals being canceled to help combat the pandemic, but businesses are also beginning to look at their own technology as potential health risks to their employees as well.

Biometric time clocks have become increasingly popular among many organizations in recent years as they heighten security and add convenience but are now being looked at as an epicenter for germs in the workplace that could include the coronavirus. This is one of the many examples of how the pandemic is affecting life at work.

Also read: Solving the concern over clean time clocks with a mobile solution

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it is possible for a person to get COVID-19 — commonly known as the coronavirus — by touching a surface that has the virus on it and then touching their own face. Most vulnerable workers have to clock in and out, including in hospitals and health facilities. Considering the large number of people who must place their fingers or entire hands on these time clocks day in and day out, it didn’t take long for employees to raise concern.

The New York Post reported that employees in New York City have protested the fingerprint biometric time clocks causing organizations such as the New York Police Department and the Metropolitan Transit Authority to reconsider their time and attendance systems. Since then, the NYPD decided to suspend fingerprint biometrics at its headquarters. The MTA also said that it will stop using fingerprint-scanning time clocks in an attempt to slow down the spread of the virus.

There are more than 150 countries and territories that have confirmed coronavirus cases, according to an NBC news report. The CDC has also reported that in the US alone, there are 7,038 total cases, including 97 deaths — and the numbers are still climbing globally. It is crucial to keep workplaces as clean as possible for those who are spending more waking hours at work than at home.

The workplace has many hiding spots for germs, such as keyboards, elevator buttons door handles and time clocks. Since the novel coronavirus is most commonly transmitted between people, touching infected surfaces can pass the virus, too. Keeping these smaller objects in mind, it is important to continuously clean every one of these surfaces throughout the day and eliminate as many risks as possible.

Also read: Workforce time clocks keep punching away. Thanks, Coldplay

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the CDC have recommended to wipe down workstations periodically, encourage employees to wash their hands more often, sanitize when soap is not available and save the handshakes for another time.

COVID-19 has no doubt taken a toll on businesses as a result of employee illness and temporary closures. Many workplaces are switching to mobile time and attendance technology not only in an attempt to make this process more convenient but to also create a more sanitary workplace by reducing possible exposure to their employees.

For Workforce.com users, there are features on our platform available to keep communication lines open during this difficult time. Engage with your staff, schedule according to operational changes, manage leave, clock in and out remotely, and communicate changes through custom events, among other things. Organizations impacted by COVID-19 can also benefit from Workforce.com’s employee app.

October 10, 2019June 29, 2023

Managing Mental Health Crises at Work

employers mental health; Millennials and mental health

Talking about suicide does not need to be taboo.

Mental Health America’s 2019 “The State of Mental Health” report has some concerning statistics. While adult prevalence of mental illness has been relatively constant, suicidal ideation, or suicidal thoughts, has increased from 3.77 percent in 2012 to 4.19 percent in 2017.

“That’s over 10.3 million adults in the U.S. with serious thoughts of suicide,” the report noted. Meanwhile, more than 10 million adults in the U.S. have an unmet need for mental health treatment.

Companies should understand how suicide could impact not only a person’s family and loved ones, but also their co-workers, clients and everyone around them, said Ali Payne, practice leader for organizational wellbeing at insurance brokerage Holmes Murphy.

“I think the way we make sure people feel connected is having a strategic relationship with leaders and having leaders be open about how it impacts them or how they do business,” Payne said. She suggested creating a work environment where open conversations are encouraged.

Leaders should educate themselves of the available resources and prepare themselves if a mental health crisis happens, she said.

Suicide is a significant public health issue both in the United States and worldwide. Between 1999 and 2016, suicide rates have increased in every state in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Further, the World Health Organization estimates that one person dies of suicide every 40 seconds worldwide.

“Our Global Suicide Crisis,” a 2019 report from Prudential, notes that while it’s understood that depression and anxiety can be precursors to suicide, there isn’t yet enough known about the many reasons behind suicide to prevent it. Still, addressing depression and anxiety can help.

One way to address mental health in the workplace is by adopting best practices such as telehealth for behavioral health and on-site mental health clinicians, the report notes. It also stressed that when an employee takes time off to deal with a mental health episode, managers should remain in contact with them. “This may not only help an employee through depression — it can also reduce their fear of returning to work,” the report noted.

Workplace benefits and policies like this are valuable, Payne said, but employers and managers can also learn about accessible community-based resources that address mental health. These resources include mental health services provided by and crisis hotlines, government organizations, state-based organizations and local hospitals and health providers.

“A lot of employers don’t always know what those resources are, and they sometimes take them for granted until they’re impacted by [a mental health crisis],” Payne said. “Then they might take the initiative to figure out what those resources are. But I always say, let’s be as proactive as we can and really try to get a handle on what [these resources] are even outside of what we’re buying today.”

Co-workers can also benefit from guidance in learning how to address what they think may be a mental health crisis in a colleague. It may not be a comfortable situation, Payne said, but part of the training she does for clients is based around understanding how to help struggling colleagues.

Productivity Expectations

One work reality that may impact an employee’s mental health is rising productivity expectations, Payne said. “Right now we’re all asking our people to do more with less,” she added, saying that employees are more often wearing many hats and pitching in wherever the company needs them. “We need to make sure we’re thinking about how workload impacts people.”

Even though employers understandably want employees to be their most productive selves, that’s difficult for an employee when they are having mental health problems. It’s an added stress as well if they still feel workplace pressure to be at maximum productivity even when they’re not feeling good, Payne said.

“If they’re feeling like this, they’re definitely not going to bring their whole self to work. They’ll leave a majority of what they need and what they want somewhere else,” she said.

She also suggests that team leaders learn to help people recognize when they’re not feeling 100 percent and when they need to take a break.

Personalizing Programs

“We can’t just say that mental health affects everyone the same way,” Payne said. Financial stress may negatively impact one person’s mental health while career stress may cause a similar reaction in someone else. There isn’t one simple solution to address this workplace issue.

“There’s no silver bullet to anything, and that’s what everyone wants,” she said. “Everyone wants this silver bullet that’s going to solve all the problems in mental health, like stress management.”

While stress management programs have some value, stress impacts everyone differently. People can improve their resiliency, but even so they may not be as resilient of a person as someone else, Payne said. Some people are just more resilient than others. Simply investing in programs meant to increase employees’ resiliency is not enough to address stress and mental health, she said.

Payne encourages her clients to consider all the resources they have at their disposal that can be impactful to different people with different needs who are struggling.

“It doesn’t mean that they’re struggling all the way to suicide,” Payne said. “It might just mean they’re struggling in general. How do we make it OK to not be OK?”

Further national, state and local resources:

You’re Sick? Go Home!

sick at work — Some 85 percent of workers say that they have gone to the office while sick, according to one recent survey.

An IT guy at a San Francisco tech startup comes to work looking like death warmed over near the end of flu season. He is visibly ill and sweating. Unfortunately, he’s also responsible for installing vital software to everyone’s computers in the office and doesn’t want to take off sick in the middle of the upgrade.

His colleagues beg him to go home, telling him they’ll be OK. Everyone is overreacting, he says, and pretends to lick their keyboards and cough on everything.

The upgrade continues despite his illness and soon people are calling in sick. All told, 20 percent of the workforce was out sick for multiple days; a few had to be hospitalized. He is confronted with this; his response: They’re whining.

This true story unfortunately isn’t that uncommon. Even though 82 percent of HR managers in a recent study by OfficeTeam said their company encourages staff to stay home when they’re sick, 85 percent of workers in the same survey announced that they have gone to the office while sick anyway.

The takeaway? If managers want to keep their teams healthy, they’ve got make the message a lot clearer, and also practice what they preach.

According to that same survey, people say they work while sick because they feel well enough to work and they don’t want to fall behind.

It’s tricky to determine whether a person who thinks they don’t need to call in sick is, in fact, right. When people have been sick and are on the mend again, they might still sound terrible but feel much better. But conversely, people are often contagious a few days before they start exhibiting symptoms. “It’s those days when they’re still coughing but their fever has broken that an employee might think, ‘I’m lethargic, but if I go ahead and drive in, I could get my work done,’ ” said Claire Bissot, managing director of CBIZ HR Services.

Not having sick days, saving sick time in case they need it later, and not wanting to burden co-workers with extra work were other common survey responses. “A lot of times, people feel guilty about making colleagues take up the slack for work they’ve left behind,” said HR consultant Arquella Hargrove of Meta Training and Consulting in Houston. Whatever the reason, as Lisa Oyler, HR director at Access Development Corp. in Salt Lake City points out, workers would be much better served taking real time off to recuperate fully. “If you take care of yourself, you’re going to get better quicker.”

Again, it’s not just about the worker but also their colleagues. “When you’re contagious, think about your community and stay home.” Oyler said. When employees don’t heed this advice, management needs to intervene. Oyler recalled a time when a colleague came into work with a scratchy throat. “As soon as everyone found out his kids had strep, our manager sent him home.” Not every boss reacts so well, though. Bissot was stunned at the story about the office epidemic at the San Francisco tech startup and said, “Shame on that manager. I would have said, ‘Here’s a mask and gloves, now teach me how to do what you need to do so you can go home.’ ”

Managers can avoid having to take a forceful stand against sick colleagues by making it 100 percent clear it’s OK for anyone to be out sick. “Deadlines are deadlines, but employees’ health is also important,” Oyler said. “You can’t make employees feel guilty. If an employee wakes up sick, there should be no doubt in their mind that they should stay home.”

Prevention Plans

Companies can do a lot to encourage wellness in the workplace. Influenza costs the American economy $87 billion in lost productivity each year, but only about half of Americans get vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Getting vaccinated is the No. 1 way to prevent flu, according to the CDC. It’s especially important for pregnant women, senior citizens and people with asthma, diabetes or certain other immune-compromising conditions, as they’re at higher risk for flu-related complications.

The CDC recommends hosting a flu vaccination clinic in the workplace to provide shots at low cost or no cost. That makes it as easy as possible for employees to protect themselves and check off that annual task from their to-do lists.

Bissot’s company opens up its flu vaccine clinic to family and friends of employees as well. “I think inviting the whole family in is a great idea, because if the kids are sick, the parents stay home sick,” she said.

There’s no such thing as emphasizing it too many times: “Stay home if you’re sick” is a message that employees need to hear again and again. “HR can communicate it but it doesn’t really mean anything unless employees hear it from their managers,” Oyler said.

Posting fliers encouraging thorough hand-washing and healthy sneezing hygiene can help.

“The more places you remind people to wash their hands and use hand sanitizer, the better off you are,” Bissot said. “During this season, you can make a fun gift out of it,” she added. “You can print a reminder and deliver it to everyone with tissues and two Emergen-Cs to raise awareness.” She recommends that companies buy hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and facial tissues in bulk to make them easily accessible in the office.

Beyond influenza, diseases such as norovirus can spread like wildfire in a workplace. Often described colloquially as “stomach flu” or “food poisoning,” the gastrointestinal malady is highly infectious and spread both by direct contact and through the air.

Knowing that germs can live on hard surfaces for up to 72 hours, Bissot recommends talking to the office’s cleaning crew to make sure they are sanitizing doorknobs, kitchen appliances and vending machine buttons. “It may cost the company a little extra,” Bissot said, “But one hour of a cleaning crew compared to having seven to 10 people out of every 50 sick is worth it.”

Staying Flexible

It’s one thing for a staff member to come to work sick to avoid falling behind, but managers should also be aware of employees’ economic reasons for working while sick. “Nonexempt people might not be paid for sick days, so if you have someone that really needs to be paid and be working, they’re going to come sick,” Hargrove said. The same goes for people who have run out of days in their PTO banks. She advises managers to be as flexible as they can to keep infectious workers out of the office. “If they come in and you have to send them home, maybe you can allow them to make up that time in the same payroll period.”

Allowing people for whom it’s practical to work from home to do so is one option to get teams through contagious illnesses unscathed. “If they really need to be there, though, we can come up with a creative solution like setting them up in a private office on a critical day,” Oyler said.

It’s important for leaders to have a contingency plan for flu season and beyond. It’s safe to assume a few folks will get sick at any given time. Managers should know in advance what resources are at their disposal. “Be proactive and make sure there’s a backup plan, so if someone is out, someone else can pick up the slack,” Hargrove said. “If people can work from home, that’s fine. If you have someone out for too long, maybe bring someone in on a temporary basis.”

And managers should remember that employees will follow the boss’ lead: Supervisors need to be willing to call in sick themselves.

“It all starts with managers,” Bissot says. “You can’t try to enforce a rule when you aren’t following it yourself. If you contaminate other people, you’ll just make things harder for yourself.”

Brandi Britton is a district vice president for OfficeTeam, a staffing service company based in the Bay Area. Comment below or email editors@workforce.com.