When one is working from home, obviously there is control over the environment but this would definitely not be the way, how things are in a regular workplace situation.
The Ground Zero has changed
What was never thought to be possible in reality and only imagined in reel life has become real. The world today stands altered for ever. Work from home no longer is a taboo. Infact has become the need of the hour. Also our way of life has changed in many ways. The new normal has been established and the Ground Zero no longer the same!!!
Everyone knows – what is social distancing?
Social distancing is fundamentally “physical distancing”. Every kid in the block by now knows it. The recommended safe space is at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people. Common sense tells us if we stay away obviously we would not catch it. So are we playing hide and seek with Corona?
No there is more to it, in fact, there is some statistics involved as given in the infographic below:
You will find more infographics at Statista
Thus the key here is slowing the spread of the virus and that’s what Social Distancing does!!!
Why is social distancing is need of the hour?
We are currently in a phase where people have already gone through extended periods of lockdowns and staying home. Now finally things are beginning to open up and people are coming out of their homes.
It is important that one maintains social distance. Especially where a large group of people needs to come together like in a marketplace or workplace.
Coronavirus covid-19 infects, by people touching surfaces as well as from the air. It is therefore important to keep practicing social distance to prevent the spread of covid-19. In this situation, flatten the curve is of the important agenda on the minds of the health authorities.
Challenges of social distancing at work
In the workplace, social distancing has many natural and practical constraints which makes practicing social distancing difficult and sometimes almost impossible. Let us consider some of these challenges or situations:
Nature of work
Professions like health care have to work in close proximity with each other as well as the patients. Professions like hairstylists, salons have to work in close quarters because of the nature of their work.
Attitude of co-worker
There are some people who are careless and there are others who still don’t consider Corona a major threat and think it is a hoax. These people don’t consider the measures of social distancing important and as need of the hour.
Need to interact with outsiders
There are professions where one has to interact with people outside your organization and those who are not governed by your workplace rules.
Need for group gatherings
There are situations where it is necessary to come together as a group. Some places like a schools, meetings with a group, a kitchen in a large hotel etc
Practicing Social Distancing at workplace
Understanding the key challenges is very important. The management will need to work to overcome these to help employees to change from the work from home practice as well bring down the chance of spread of the virus.
Some measures that will help the cause at workplaces:
- It is important to avoid close contact with co-workers as far as possible
- There should be guidelines on the number of people who gather
- Face coverings should be made mandatory
- Periodic tests to be carried out
- Follow guidelines given by public health authorities
These measures are just guidelines. Also when no one is watching, all such guidelines tend to be violated. To ensure there is some motivation to keep the workforce from neglecting them, a monitoring system becomes necessary.
Such a system should be automated and seamless rather than a manual one. This will help to self-regulate the employees themselves as no one wants to pick up for not following the rules.
Come Genio
For practicing Social Distancing at workplace, Genio is one such solution that will help in monitoring the social distancing measures. It can also do contact tracing too. It is a Bluetooth-based Internet of things solution.
The solution is simple to implement. All one needs to do is provide the Genio Id Cards to your employees. The relays and gateways are placed at critical locations where the employees need to be tracked
On implementing Genio the monitoring starts right from travel pickup from the home of the employee to drop back to his/her house in the evening.
Travel
With Genio, social distancing gets tracked right from the point employee enters the company bus. There would be alarms sounded if these norms are getting flouted.
Gate
As soon as the employee enters the gate, Genio enabled temperature guns to record the temperatures against the employee.
Social Distancing
Whenever two employees are working close and thereby failing to maintain social distance their managers are notified and a warning hooter can be triggered.
Sanitization
It can be checked if sanitization was done by the designated person and the number of times it has been done.
Hygiene
Personal hygiene can also be checked if employees are using sanitizers and washbasins when they move from one place to another.
With so much tracking happening automatically and without any kind of intervention by the employees, this system is totally non-intrusive.
Additional Benefits
Genio thus comes with lot of opportunities to ensure that the social distancing is being tracked. Genio comes with much more value adds apart from these. With Genio one can do contact tracing easily. It also comes with the ability to track your employees, which can be used to map productivity. Genio also enables security in the workplace.
Take Action
It is definitely safer to work from home, but sooner or later the need to work as before is going to come forth as the Covid contagion is here to stay. We can only take a sufficient amount of care to avoid the chances and reduce the spread.
