Safety – Workforce

April 19, 2021

How to identify and handle an employee at risk for workplace violence

termination, covidiot, workplace violence, gun, weapon

It’s been four days since Brandon Hole returned to the Indianapolis FedEx facility at which he previously worked, and killed eight people.

I’ve previously written about how to spot an employee at risk for workplace violence. And while I’m not sure FedEx could have done anything to prevent what happened here, this tragedy nevertheless is a reminder of what employers need to do when they suspect an employee presents a risk of violence.

Here is my post from Feb. 18, 2019, following a workplace shooting in Aurora, Illinois.

Early Friday afternoon, Henry Pratt Co. informed one of its employees, Gary Martin, of his termination. Shortly thereafter, he opened fire with a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson, killing five of his co-workers and wounding five police officers. Martin himself was the sixth casualty, killed in a shootout with police.

After the news of this tragedy broke, reports surfaced of Martin’s history of violence — six prior arrests by the local police department for domestic violence, and a decades-old felony conviction for aggravated assault.

All of which begs the question, should this employer have known that Martin was prone to violence, and if so, should it have taken added measures in connection with his termination.

A criminal history of violent arrests and offenses is not necessarily a predictor of workplace violence. Still, there are certain warning signs for which an employer can look to help determine whether an employee is at risk for potential violence.

According to ESI Group, these warning signs include:

A chronic inability to get along with fellow employees
Mood swings and anger control issues
Expressions of paranoia or persecution. Being a “victim”
A history of problems with past jobs and and/or personal relationships
An inability to get beyond minor setbacks or disputes at work
A fascination with guns, weapons, or violent events
A sudden deterioration in work habits or personal grooming
Signs of stress, depression, or suicidal ideation
A major life problem, such as divorce or legal problems

If one more of these red flags surface, it is recommended that you refer this employee to an employee assistance program, for assessment and treatment.

If you are compelled to fire an employee who you think poses a risk of violence, it is recommended that you take further steps to mitigate against the risk of your termination transforming into a workplace tragedy.

ESI Group recommends the following:

Consider a professional threat assessment.
Consider using a neutral manager or outside security consultant to carry out the termination.
If there is manager or supervisor who has been the object of threats or anger, that person should not be the person to conduct the termination.
Have security nearby—not in the same office, but close enough to hear signs of a problem and to act.
Do not take a break. There are numerous instances of an employee asking for a bathroom break or time to compose him- or herself, and using the break to retrieve weapons.
Wait until the end of the workday to terminate, if possible. This protects the dignity of the fired employee and minimizes the number of employees on hand should a situation escalate.
Minimize any reasons why the employee would have to revisit the workplace. Mail a check; have uncollected belongings sent to the person’s home via a delivery service.
Allow the person as much dignity as possible, but be brief and to the point. Do not get into a back and forth.
Emphasize any severance benefits and outsourcing help that may be available. Some organizations decide they will not contest unemployment or offer the option of resigning.

As with most issues in the workplace, the proverbial ounce of prevention really matters. While there exists no foolproof way to protect your workplace against these kinds of tragedies, a few preventative steps can go a long way to putting you in the best place to deter and respond.

April 15, 2021

OSHA finally gets real about COVID-19 safety

Consider the following COVID-19 safety and health violations OSHA recently uncovered at a Massachusetts tax preparation business.

Employees and customers were prohibited from wearing face coverings in the workplace despite a statewide mask order that mandated the business to require employees and customers to wear masks.
Employees were required to work within 6 feet of each other and of customers for multiple hours while not wearing face coverings.
Adequate means of ventilation in the workplace were not provided.
Controls such as physical barriers, pre-shift screening of employees, enhanced cleaning, and other methods to reduce the potential for person-to-person transmission of the virus were not implemented.

What did these violations cost this employer in OSHA penalties? $5,000? $10,000? $25,000?

How about $136,532!

According to OSHA Regional Administrator Galen Blanton in Boston, “This employer’s willful refusal to implement basic safeguards places her employees at an increased risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus. Stopping the spread of this virus requires business’ support in implementing COVID-19 Prevention Programs, and ensuring that staff and customers wear face coverings and maintain physical distance from each other.”

This appears to be the first company cited under OSHA’s recently launched national emphasis program focusing on COVID-19 enforcement efforts. If you’ve waited for the past 13 months without taking COVID safety seriously in your business, you better do so now. OSHA is watching, and based on this one example, violations are going to be quite expensive.

February 22, 2021September 13, 2022

Prepare for the glut of COVID-19 whistleblower tag-along claims

fulfillment center, distribution center, COVID-19

The headline reads, “Ex-Manager Sues Ample Hills in Lawsuit Alleging Harassment and Unsafe COVID-19 Protocols” (boldface/emphasis mine).

Here’s the lede:

Bryce Mottram, a former general manager at one of quirky ice cream purveyor Ample Hills’ scoop shops, has filed a lawsuit in New York Eastern District Court alleging that he was fired from the company in retaliation for speaking up about instances of sexual harassment and unsafe COVID-19 workplace protocols at the company.

I firmly believe that for the next year-plus, just about every employment-related lawsuit will contain a COVID-19 whistleblower tag-along claim.

In other words, employees will sue for discrimination and safety-related retaliation, or harassment and safety-related retaliation, or breach of contract and safety-related retaliation, or fill-in-the blank and safety-related retaliation. I’ve already seen it happen in cases, and it makes an already complicated employment dispute that much more complicated and dangerous.

This likely reality means that employers must double down on implementing and enforcing COVID-19 safety rules in the workplace. Have a written COVID-19 safety policy and strictly enforce it. If you don’t know what should be in this policy, OSHA recently published a terrific guide.

Separate and send home infected or potentially infected people from the workplace.
Implement physical distancing in all communal work areas, including remote work and telework.
Install barriers where physical distancing cannot be maintained.
Suppress the spread of the hazard using appropriate and properly worn face coverings.
Improve ventilation.
Provide the supplies necessary for good hygiene practices.
Perform routine cleaning and disinfection.

These points are just a start, and I recommend you consult with OSHA counsel or a COVID-19-knowledgable safety consultant to draft and implement your plan (including training your employees).

December 8, 2020

Tipped restaurant and other service workers at high risk for ‘maskual harassment’

construction, mask, mobile technology, COVID-19

Everyone has been hit hard during the COVID-19 pandemic. Service industry employees, however, have been hit particularly hard. Many are out of work. And those who are able to work are working fewer hours and earning less in wages and tips.

Moreover, according to this survey (h/t: NPR), a majority of service industry workers are being forced to choose between earning valuable tips and staying safe by wearing a mask.

Consider these statistics regarding tipped employees:

78 percent report experiencing or witnessing hostile behavior from customers in response to staff enforcing COVID-19 safety protocols.

83 percent report that their tips have declined during COVID-19, with two-thirds reporting a decline of more than half.

58 percent report feeling reluctant to enforce COVID-19 protocols out of concern that customers would tip them less.

67 percent report actually having received a lesser than usual tip after enforcing COVID-19 protocols.

84 percent report being within six feet of at least one person who is not wearing a mask in every shift, and one-third report being within six feet of 30 or more maskless individuals on every shift.

The kicker: 37 percent of tipped workers reported that their employer had not conducted mandatory training on COVID safety protocols and 69 percent reported that their employer is not consistently following all COVID safety protocols.

This is unacceptable. Restaurant workers are on the front lines of this virus working inside one of this pandemic’s most dangerous spreading environments.

They shouldn’t have to be de facto safety sheriffs, enforcing mask mandates and other health rules. Yet, that is the position in which many of their employers have put them, which, according to the above survey, is often without training or the enforcement of COVID safety rules.

Employees should not be placed in the position of enforcing COVID safety rules with a customer, especially when they risk the loss of tips and revenue as a result. Employers, do your part. Train your workers and set up a system of enforcement that takes your front-line workers out of the enforcement equation.

November 24, 2020June 29, 2023

Jushi Holdings builds its workforce in the cannabis industry despite pandemic

marijuana, Jushi Holdings, cannabis industry

While many industries have suffered through massive cutbacks in 2020 and were forced to make large-scale layoffs, at least one sector has weathered the economic downturn as hiring trends have blossomed.

According to Marijuana Business Daily’s Annual Marijuana Business Factbook, U.S. medical and adult-use cannabis sales has climbed by nearly 40 percent this year to about $15 billion as industry employment in 2020 will jump by 50 percent over 2019 to almost 300,000 full-time jobs.

To lend perspective to that figure, a story in Forbes points out that the number of cannabis industry jobs is on par with the beverage industry and computer programming. And to add a bit more perspective, cannabis is a highly regulated industry requiring strict compliance measures. Just 11 states have fully legal adult-use markets with four more states adopting laws following the November election.

Evaluating safety and hiring

Despite the industry’s growth, cannabis operators had to take a breath to evaluate their operations as the pandemic swept across the economy. Jushi Holdings Inc. remained operational at the pandemic’s onset, said Executive Vice President of Human Resources Nichole Upshaw, but company leaders assessed what actions needed to be taken.

Being a vertical operation with 450 employees (335 are hourly) in retail, cultivation, processing and manufacturing, there were certain logistical issues they had to address.

As an essential employer, Jushi immediately focused on the safety of their employees, patients and customers.

“We worked together as a team to source cleaning supplies and PPE for all locations and employees,” said Upshaw. Currently Jushi has operations in seven states as well as offices in Denver and Boca Raton, Florida. “We were early to provide N95 masks for our employees and start taking employee temperatures upon arrival to work.”

Prompt communication became key

Communication was immediate and urgent for this frontline employer. They established daily calls and senior management received regular updates to influence important decisions, Upshaw said.

Retail, corporate, and cultivation/manufacturing teams each had their own calls, she added. They also spoke with industry peers and constantly tracked health and employment law guidelines. Jushi also launched “Blazing the Trail,” a quarterly all-hands call where senior executives updated employees on company performance and initiatives.

Upshaw emphasized the importance of both executive and companywide calls. “Members of the legal and HR team each attended weekly industry calls to discuss how we were all addressing the safety of our businesses,” she said. “We attended webinars and read countless published articles to ensure we had the most up-to-date information and response measures in place. We reviewed the CDC website daily and communicated out each update that impacted our locations.”

Communication also was key to balancing employee safety and customer needs, she said.

Also read: Managing people in the growing cannabis industry

“The best thing you can do in the case of differing perspectives is communicate,” Upshaw said. “Changes that supported the safety of our employees created an environment of understanding. Reminding our employees of the responsibility we have to keep cannabis accessible to our patients and customers during these turbulent times also created an environment of understanding. These are the times when being a great listener is the best service you can provide to customers and your employees.”

Seeking talent from outside the industry

Jushi temporarily tapped the brakes on hiring at the outset of the pandemic, but it’s clear that has changed. A glance at Jushi’s careers site lists dozens of positions, from dispensary store manager and shift supervisor to HR generalist.

Upshaw said that Jushi enlists cannabis executive search and staffing company FlowerHire to assist its hiring. With its burgeoning employment numbers, the cannabis industry presents an opportunity for those who were laid off or looking for a career change to redeploy their skills. Cannabis could greatly benefit from leading professionals outside of the market, according to a release from FlowerHire.

“While we did have about a month when recruiting halted, that period of time didn’t last long,” Upshaw said. “FlowerHire was ready to jump in like a member of the Jushi and (retail locations) BEYOND/HELLO team and be our talent scouts while we focused on keeping our employees safe.”

Initially there was a lot of instruction to remind employees how important it was to follow safety protocols, she said.

“After months of adjusting to the pandemic, I believe that human behaviors have been forever changed,” she said. “People will continue to join the organization ready to work and adhere to safety standards because they have been doing so since March of 2020.”

Upgrading the onboarding experience

With the influx of new employees lacking a background in the cannabis industry, HR is responsible for onboarding employees with knowledge of what to expect before and after their first day, Upshaw said.

“My desire is to build out a mature pre-boarding, onboarding and training experience that equips every employee for their role at Jushi and BEYOND/HELLO,” she said. “Although we have all adjusted to the new work order, there are many initiatives and projects that have taken a back seat to the main priority of keeping employees safe.”

Jushi has implemented pulse surveys to gather feedback on various topics, she said. During a time when health care is on everyone’s mind, Jushi also increased the level of company contributions to benefit plans.

Adhering to compliance measures

Following governmental guidelines is nothing new to cannabis companies, Upshaw said. At the federal level, marijuana remains classified as a Schedule I substance under the Controlled Substances Act, while states and local agencies have layers of regulations and policies.

“We are accustomed to operating in highly regulated environments and we have a culture of doing what we can to elevate the reputation of our industry,” Upshaw said. “This opportunity has brought us together and allowed us to continue to reach our unified mission. I am proud of the way we have worked together, have had a bias for action, and have complied with all local, state and federal guidelines.”

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October 14, 2020June 29, 2023

COVID-19 causes Radial Inc.’s 25,000 seasonal hires to practice safe shipping

seasonal hires, distribution center, COVID-19, fulfillment center

It’s a common headline this time of year: Retailers and distribution centers staff up as holiday shoppers begin their quest for the perfect gift.

While the news is a huge relief, particularly during a time of record unemployment, 2020 brings new challenges for companies that sell and ship sought-after holiday gifts like Fingerlings, ugly sweaters and smart gardens (yes, it’s a thing) across the country. Recruiting and training tens of thousands of new employees is one thing; doing so in the midst of a pandemic is compounded with an extreme new level of health and safety risks.

Radial Inc., which provides multinational e-commerce services to retailers including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Keurig and GameStop, announced in September it is adding 25,000 seasonal employees to its fulfillment and call centers this holiday season. The Pennsylvania-based company emphasized the safety measures it is implementing in its 20 distribution centers and eight call centers, five of which are in North America.

“The executive team has been proactive about addressing COVID-19 safety concerns since the very beginning of the pandemic,” said Eric Wohl, Radial’s chief human resources officer and senior vice president. “We’ve revamped processes and procedures and researched and tested numerous types of emerging technologies to enforce social distancing and maximize safety.”

Since the annual holiday shopping crush comes as a surprise to exactly no one in the retail industry, Radial is skilled at scaling its workforces four to five times the normal size every peak season to handle the increased demand in e-commerce.

“We expected that there would be even more e-commerce demand this holiday season as the impact of COVID-19 has made shoppers more comfortable buying online,” Wohl said. “We developed hiring projections and safety protocols to account for that going back to the second quarter.”

Wohl said that all seasonal employees being hired for the holidays are hourly workers. Of the current Radial employees, the hourly population represents around 75 percent of its workforce. Including the seasonal staff already onboard, hourly workers account for over 85 percent of all workers at Radial. In peak season, that percentage is even higher, he added.

Implementing mobile tech on a large scale

Technology is aiding Radial’s safety measures for current employees and new hires. Radial has thermal temperature devices and Instant-Trace Contact Badges, Wohl said. The badges utilize Ultra-Wideband technology for proximity measurement to help enforce social distancing requirements by alerting the wearer if someone else is within six feet.

“As we scale for peak season, these technologies are incredibly valuable to ensure safety procedures are carried out in traditionally high-traffic areas, such as training groups,” he said.

Also read: Labor analytics add power to workforce management tools

Enhanced robotics in distribution centers utilizes autonomous mobile technology to assist employees who are packing and shipping orders as they comply with socially distanced headcount capacities and reduce interaction with one another, Wohl said.

Visual camera projection systems at certain sites are also helping onboard new hires with mobile training stations that optimize training layouts and processes to ensure safety. Wearable microphones and speakers also help workers more easily hear their managers across the warehouse while remaining socially distant, he said.

Creating virtual call centers

Call center employees have transitioned to a largely remote workforce, Wohl said.

“Radial is offering more work from home positions than ever before and moved to proactively transition the majority of our team to home in March and April,” he said. “We are looking to have 50 to 70 percent of our customer care workforce work remotely this holiday season, which is over 2,500 employees nationwide.”

Radial also has implemented changes to the interview and training process for call center employees, including virtual formats to reduce the need and number of seasonal workers in previously onsite-only training classes.

Training for COVID-19 and the holiday rush

Still, training 25,000 new hires not only in how to do their new jobs but also in how to act in a COVID-19 work environment can be a challenge. Wohl said that starting with the interview process, they have worked closely with staffing companies to provide low-contact, socially distant interviews at agency offices, drive-through job fairs and other interview formats.

“We have also invested in socially distant interviews and virtual training so customer care and fulfillment workers are set up for success on the job,” he said. “Each site has the resources to ensure socially distanced training of new-hire groups through several voice and visual training projection solutions for trainers, along with Instant-Trace badges.”

Distribution and call centers have their own dedicated training teams for seasonal and full-time employees, he said, retooling their entire process and technology platforms to manage COVID-19 impacts.

Case study: PFS dials up a rapid work from home solution for its call center staff

Radial’s human resources department, which consists of 47 employees as well as 13 employees on the HR Partner team, also has played a pivotal support role ensuring that training teams and new hires have what they need to be successful, Wohl said.

“We conduct regular assessments of training and onboarding effectiveness for continuous improvement and partner with our training teams to share best practices and collaborate on program development,” he said.

Support for all employees

Everyone has a role to play in slowing the spread by following basic precautions and looking out for one another, Wohl said. Radial has assigned a social-distance champion at distribution centers who regularly monitors the facility to help remedy problems through coaching or procedural changes.

“We’re also continuing to find ways to adapt perks to boost morale and in ways that fit in with today’s new circumstances including flexible work schedules and enhanced support for employees dealing with the impacts of COVID personally or within their family,” he said. Boosting morale also is important, he said. Trivia contests, raffles, quarterly awards and dress-up days have helped, he said.

“We try and maintain a family-like environment in all our sites and teams,” he said. “We listen to our employees. We ask for regular feedback on how we are doing to support their needs during COVID and adjust our plans when we can.”

Retailers still must hire seasonal workers to help ramp up for the holiday season. Data shows that despite the impact of COVID-19, shoppers won’t significantly change their holiday spending compared to 2019. With this high level of activity in mind, employee health and safety must be the top priority for every retailer right now, Wohl said.

“If they can’t keep their employees safe, they can’t deliver on their promises to customers,” he said. “Fulfillment and customer care centers are where the behind-the-scenes holiday magic happens. Dedicated employees are behind every package, phone call or text.

“For retailers to meet their holiday goals and make sure packages arrive on time, safety needs to be the mantra at every single store, warehouse, customer care center and delivery center.”

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October 13, 2020

If your employees are scared to come to work you are doing something very, very wrong

According to Deadspin, NFL players are terrified of COVID but are afraid to speak up for fear of angering the NFL.

“I looked at my son. I looked at my family, and I just didn’t think it was worth it,” Jaguars player Lerentee McCray, a seven-year veteran, told me this summer after opting out. “I could catch it and bring it home to them. Or I can get it and even if it doesn’t kill me, it could destroy my career long-term. I feel really weird not playing football right now, but can’t. I can’t risk doing something so dangerous and maybe hurting the people I love.”

In the end, most players decided the money was worth the risk. So, they play.

Yet there’s been a definite shift in that attitude over the past few months and even weeks, several told me in various interviews, as the virus spreads through locker rooms. Most requested anonymity for fear of angering NFL owners and the league office.

Players add that they feel that the safety measures the league and their union promised pre-season were meaningless.

One of the things players tell me that’s changed their thinking from the summer is the ballistic pace of the infections. One moment the virus isn’t there, the next it’s calling plays in the huddle. As a virus spreads through a locker room there’s a sense of helplessness. Players now think of football during the pandemic era not as a calculated risk, but Russian roulette.

All of the outbreaks have left a player base more scared than ever before. That’s the word I’m hearing the most: scared.

This is awful. Yes, they make a lot of money to play a game, and yes, they all had the ability to opt out before the season started (as 67 players chose to do). But they also should have an expectation that their employer is doing everything within reason to keep them safe and the ability to air their grievances if they perceive that their employer is failing in that mission. The fact that players believe that the NFL is failing on both counts is galling.

Employers, you have one primary obligation to your employees during this pandemic — keep them safe. If your employees are terrified to come to work, you are failing, period. It’s time to look inward. Are you doing your part?

Are you mandating masks?
Do you require a minimum of six feet of physical distance at all times?
Are you promoting hand washing and other good personal hygiene habits?
Are you regularly cleaning and sanitizing work and common areas?
Have you eliminated gatherings of employees?
Are you mandating self-screening for COVID-19 symptoms and sending home anyone with symptoms until cleared by a doctor?
Are you enforcing the CDC’s isolation and quarantine rules?
Do you have an open door through which employees can walk, without retaliation or fear of retaliation, if they feel you are not meeting these obligations or their coworkers aren’t following the rules?

Unless you can answer yes to each of these questions, it’s time to take a long, hard look at your pandemic protocols and decide what you should be doing differently. Your employees, their families and friends, and the general public are counting on you.

September 10, 2020June 29, 2023

PFS dials up a rapid work from home solution for its call center staff

Call centers typically are staffed by dozens, if not hundreds of employees during any given shift.

Most employees sit at workstations in relatively tight quarters in large, open rooms as they assist customers tracking an order or seeking to initiate a return. Such work environments, however, had to undergo an immediate makeover in March as the COVID-19 pandemic set in. By June, a remarkable 42 percent of the U.S. labor force was working from home full time, according to Stanford University research.

Dallas-based PFS, a global ecommerce call center provider for high-profile consumer brands including Yves Saint Laurent, L’Oreal and Asics running shoes, was well aware of the pivot it needed to make. Immediate, wholesale changes in where and how its call center employees worked was imperative given safety and social distancing regulations.

With an accelerated shift to online shopping, it was crucial for PFS employees to provide uninterrupted service to customers as company executives sought solutions to keep its employees healthy and productive, said Dawn Brewster, vice president of PFS global customer care.

Some employers had difficulty implementing a productive work-from-home model. Companies with large hourly employee bases faced time and attendance concerns as well as legal hurdles. But PFS, whose hourly workers account for about 90 percent of its employee base across its four contact centers, was ahead of the curve, Brewster said.

Also read: Shift scheduling strategies can be improved through technology

“Creating a work-from-home model in such short notice amid a pandemic was a challenge at first,” Brewster said. “We needed to prioritize our employees’ safety and ensure our clients received the same level of customer experience, regardless of where agents were operating from.”

PFS quickly built a model that helped employees emotionally and physically, Brewster said, adding that they conceived and implemented a work-from-home plan in just two weeks.

“The urgency to shift our call centers remotely without any lag in output for our clients was a challenge that our team was able to rise above,” she said. “We designed a solution that translated our typical processes and technology to a remote solution, ensuring that any operational shifts were designed with the employee in mind first.”

Case study: Safety as a top priority helps Easy Ice slip past COVID-19 challenges

PFS employees remain 100 percent remote through the company’s work-from-home model, which allows employees to avoid the complications COVID-19 presents for normal in-office experiences, Brewster said.

“We have made our employees’ mental and physical health our top priority,” she said. “Through Communities in Microsoft Teams, employees can interact with other employees to ask questions or share best practices for how to respond to various customer requests, much like they would on-site at the contact center. We have done everything possible to simulate an on-site environment to support our agents through this difficult time.”

PFS continues to operate multiple shifts through its work-from-home model, Brewster said. Employees clock in remotely using various time-and-attendance platforms, she added.

“Multiple shifts are standard practice for us,” she said. “We typically have six to seven shifts running between 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., depending on client’s requirements. We can support as many shifts required, up to and including 24/7 support.”

To date PFS has not reopened its centers. Yet PFS executives have been pleasantly surprised at the results of implementing a work-from-home policy, said Brewster, who has been at the forefront of making sure PFS’ remote work model was a success.

Also read: Workforce tracking solutions do not always track with company culture

What began as a response to an immediate need to prioritize employee safety actually resulted in improved contact center metrics, she said. Employees are happy to be working from home and it shows. Quality assurance review rates have improved as supervisors and managers maintain employee engagement through increased team and individual meetings, she said.

“PFS has seen a drop in attendance issues and we’re experiencing lower attrition rates across clients,” Brewster said. “We helped our employees transition to working from home, giving them all of the necessary tools to be successful. This has led to an overwhelmingly positive response from both clients and employees. We have increased our quality-assurance review rates, and supervisors and managers are maintaining employee engagement through increased team and individual meetings.”

Given the immediacy of such a drastic shift in its workforce, PFS executives adhered to patience and adaptability to shift employees to remote work environments. Brewster suggests other organizations should consider breaking up shifts to offer flexible scheduling, adopting new technologies and increasing communications and training with its employees.

“Embracing these shifts offers an immense upside for organizations,” she said. “We’ve seen increased performance and happier employees since the shift to work from home. Additionally, we have been able to expand our recruiting capabilities now that we are no longer tied to a physical location.”

Do time logs right and let everything follow by integrating it with other vital parts of managing your staff. From ensuring the right person clocks in for the shift to paying staff correctly, it all starts with the Workforce.com Time Clock App.

September 3, 2020June 29, 2023

Safety as a top priority helps Easy Ice slip past COVID-19 challenges

Considering that a worker is injured on the job every seven seconds, prioritizing employee safety is of utmost importance for virtually all organizations.

While such a figure is staggering, the National Safety Council says that each one is preventable. Employers can teach and hopefully minimize the back strains and falls of everyday employee safety, but once the pandemic hit in early March, organizations faced an unforeseen challenge and were largely unprepared to address the issues COVID-19 presented to a healthy workplace.

While there was a bit of breathing room for companies that could send employees home to work, others including Marquette, Michigan-based Easy Ice, scrambled to find safety solutions with little time to spare. As a national ice machine provider, Easy Ice provides an essential service. Its employees are essential workers, which meant company leaders had to quickly create a safety plan for workers while still servicing its customers.

Also read: Automate how your staff clocks in and out and cut hours of admin work each week.

Easy Ice Safety Manager Ryan Mahru was assigned to design a reopening plan specific to Easy Ice while also keeping in mind the different conditions for its 200-plus employees in 14 locations across the United States.

“The first step was making sure all of our employees followed best safety practices,” said John Mahlmeister, co-founder and chief operating officer of Easy Ice. “We created a COVID response task force that meets weekly to discuss emerging technology and update our best practices. We also consulted the OSHA Occupational Risk Pyramid, which classifies workplace exposure risk into lower, medium, high, and very high.”

Safety for in-office and field employees

A comprehensive 17-page preparedness and response plan spelled out protocols for in-office employees and field technicians servicing commercial ice and water dispensers for other essential employers including manufacturing plants, hospitals and fast-food restaurants.

Technicians were provided with latex gloves and eye protection when servicing ice machines in the field. They also were limited to one individual per vehicle when traveling between jobs, Mahlmeister said.

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

“We also factored in industry-specific scenarios where our employees were most likely to have in-person contact and we were able to adjust some of our protocols,” he said. One example, he said, was allowing technicians to give verbal confirmation that a job was completed versus doing it in-person.

A safe return to the office

All Easy Ice offices, which house about 60 percent of the company’s workforce, are now open, Mahlmeister said. There are no-touch thermometers at each sanitization station so employees can check their temperature, and Hepa air filters were installed to help reduce the number of airborne particles floating throughout the office.

“Policies and mandates differ from state to state,” he said. “So we followed a gradual return in accordance with local guidelines and COVID testing numbers. In areas where we identified it would be safe to reopen offices, employees were given the option to continue to work from home for extenuating circumstances, such as caring for high-risk family members.”

Also read: Knock out the practice of buddy punching for good

To assure compliance, all branch managers perform a routine safety audit to identify areas for improvement and ensure compliance with federal guidelines, he said. Branch managers also attend weekly safety briefs where leadership shares new and emerging safety information to prevent coronavirus in the office. Managers also conduct training sessions with employees to ensure these safety measures are implemented into daily practices.

Addressing the emotions

Taking care of the physical side of employee safety was crucial. But Mahlmeister and his team realized they needed to address the emotional side of a pandemic that has deeply affected workers.

“Changing work conditions can be stressful for employees, so we created programs to ensure our team stayed healthy and happy throughout the pandemic,” he said. Easy Ice’s workforce is made up of 74 percent hourly while the remaining 26 percent are salaried employees. Some 40 percent of the workforce is dedicated to serving customers in the field, he said.

Also read: Labor tracking in an increasingly complex legal environment

“Transparency was key,” he said. “We held all-employee meetings monthly during the height of COVID so employees knew that Easy Ice was standing strong through uncertain times.”

Like many organizations, Microsoft Teams became a staple of the work day to help employees physically and emotionally.

“Activities include yoga, healthy breathing and chair exercises, lessons to help parents with home schooling, urban gardening classes and photo and recipe-sharing events,” he said.

The comprehensive plan has helped Easy Ice employees endure the pandemic. But this is not short term, Mahlmeister said.

“Safety should be every company’s top priority,” he said. “I encourage all employers to create an effective response plan while consulting health organizations and recommendations made by professionals. When employees feel safe coming to work, it will allow for a boost in morale and ensure they are able to focus completely on the job.”

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June 30, 2020June 29, 2023

CDC now recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public

As COVID-19 cases spike nationwide, and the CDC warns that we have “way too much virus” to control the pandemic, that same agency just released new guidance recommending that people wear cloth face coverings when in public.

The highlights:

CDC recommends that people wear cloth face coverings in public settings when around people outside of their household, especially when other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain.
Cloth face coverings may help prevent people who have COVID-19 from spreading the virus to others.
Cloth face coverings are most likely to reduce the spread of COVID-19 when they are widely used by people in public settings.
Cloth face coverings should NOT be worn by children under the age of 2 or anyone who has trouble breathing, is unconscious, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to remove the mask without assistance.

Also read: Employee scheduling after the COVID-19 pandemic

For reasons that still baffle me, the use of cloth face coverings is a political issue, and not a science issue. Since this issue has become politicized to the point of endangering people’s lives, let’s look at, and debunk, the counterarguments people use against wearing masks in public.

1. A mask won’t stop me from catching COVID-19.

You are correct. A mask won’t stop you from catching COVID-19. But they will stop you from spreading it to someone else. The science is clear and irrefutable—if a majority of us wear masks when in public, we’d reduce the spread of this virus to an acceptable level, and if all of us do so we’d effectively stop the spread outright. If you don’t want to wear a mask for yourself, wear one to protect your family members, your friends, your co-workers, and others.

2. I’m not sick.

Just because you don’t feel sick doesn’t mean that you’re not carrying COVID-19. It could also mean that you are a pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic carrier of the virus who could still nevertheless transmit it to someone else. You aren’t wearing the mask to protect yourself; you’re wearing it to protect others.

3. I’m not high-risk for Covid-19 complications.

Just because you are younger or lack any of the underlying medical conditions that places you at higher risk of Covid complications doesn’t mean that those you come into contact are as well. Think of your friends and family members, the friends and family members of your co-workers, and the friends and family members of those with whom you come into contact at the grocery store or anywhere else in the world. Again, you aren’t wearing the mask to protect yourself; you’re wearing it to protect others. (Do you sense a theme here?)

4. I have a constitutional right not to wear a mask.

No, you don’t, no more than you have a constitutional right to enter a business without wearing a shirt or shoes, to drive without a seatbelt, or to smoke on an airplane. The government can require you to wear a mask when outside of our house to protect the health and safety of others during a pandemic, period. If a government can’t maintain rules to keep us healthy and safe, why have a government at all?

5. Wearing a mask will harm my health.

No, it won’t. People incorrectly claim that masks decrease the wearer’s oxygen intake, increase their inhalation of toxins and carbon dioxide, and cause their immune system to shut down. These claims are simply not true. If they were, doctors, nurses, and other medical staff in operating rooms would be falling ill daily. If you have a legitimate disability that a facial covering would negatively impact, the ADA might provide you some relief in the form of a reasonable or public accommodation. Otherwise, science simply does not support the claim that masks will harm the health of a healthy person. Moreover, if you think it’s hard to breath wearing a mask, you’ll really think it’s hard to breathe with your lungs drowning in fluid while on a ventilator.

6. Masks are part of a government conspiracy to control me and my actions.

Seriously? Do I even need to discuss this argument? Talk to me when you remove your tinfoil hat.

The bottom line: wear a mask.

If we simply wash our hands, and maintain an appropriate amount of social distance and wear a mask when around others, we’d all be able to go about some semblance of our normal lives. And since that’s all what we all want to do, why do some make this issue so damn hard?