Contact Tracing at the Workplace Level: Why We Need It To Fight The Spread Of COVID-19
As states continue to wrestle with timelines for re-opening their economies, many anxious businesses await the chance to re-open their doors. Essential businesses that have remained open during the pandemic, on the other hand, continue to take steps to keep employees and customers safe. However, one reality businesses can’t argue - open or on the cusp of being - is the need for enterprise-level contact tracing to gain proactive, critical insights into what goes on in their locations, so they can hinder the spread of COVID-19.
Companies are instituting a number of precautionary measures, including giving employees the proper PPE to do their jobs safely, installing barriers, such as sneeze guards, encouraging social distancing, and implementing heightened hygienic and cleaning practices. But that’s not enough. To gain greater control, business owners need to launch their own contact tracing methods to better identify disease spread if an employee is showing concerning symptoms, or even worse, tests positive for COVID-19.
COVID-19 response plans vary from state-to-state, and there is no one-size-fits-all plan to stunt the spread of the virus. While healthcare workers are on-the-ground recording patients’ interactions to track the spread, and tech companies tease the promise of unverified solutions to help consumers manage their exposure individually, these aren’t reliable enterprise-level alternatives for businesses.
The challenge is, businesses need a vantage point of their staff at-large, and manual and app-based solutions aren’t realistic options. Companies can’t conceivably dedicate extra staff for reporting similar to hospitals, and apps - while riddled with a myriad of security and accessibility issues - aren’t ready now, or even feasible for all work environments. Some industrial businesses like construction sites, manufacturing plants, and mining companies don’t allow employees to take smartphones onto hazardous worksites. And most tech can’t deliver comprehensive data to make smart, proactive decisions that could ultimately protect employees.
Additionally, employees that have been working through the crisis have been on high alert, and those returning to work are likely to feel anxious about risking their health and safety. So, what to do? Luckily, smart badges can give workers piece-of-mind, and provide management with the insights they need to make quick business decisions that can minimize COVID-19’s impact on operations. For example, our smart badge, ResCUE, is a proven solution that should be a part of every workplace’s safety plan.
Deploying ResCUE is easy. Simply provide every employee with a smart badge to wear or place in their pocket while on the job, and you’ll instantly - and anonymously - have the ability to track how and when people come within a close distance of one another. It doesn’t require any downloads, app installs or Wi-Fi signals to operate - just turn it on. Once activated, the badges collect data in detailed dashboards for employers to see person-to-person interaction, with helpful insights like the number of and duration of interactions.
A workplace COVID-19 outbreak can cause closures, put employees at risk, reduce profits, interrupt supply chains, or worse, continue spreading the virus around the community that then lengthens shelter-in-place orders. Armed with the information ResCUE provides, businesses can get ahead of these issues and more, such as adjusting staffing models and issuing customer communications if they have to change hours, shift to delivery options or deploy other virtual solutions. Simply put, it gives employers power to prevent operational hiccups before they happen, and helps them be proactive about their business, instead of reactive, in the face of COVID-19.
At Proxfinity, we know that safety precautions in the time of COVID-19 are paramount. ResCUE is one tool that can put preventative control in a business’s hands immediately and successfully. Interested in ResCUE? Set-up a demo today so you can protect your employees tomorrow.
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