Support Your Startup Team Through the Coronavirus Pandemic

Coronavirus is here to stay for longer than any of us would like. Many of the guidelines being shared are great for big business, but hard to implement for small businesses with limited resources. This guide outlines the basics around keeping your employees and your business healthy in a time of uncertainty. It’s being updated daily as new resources are being shared. For up-to-date recommendations for businesses and employers, you can also refer to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and Department of Health response guide (SA Coronavirus Portal) at www.sacoronavirus.co.za. The following steps will guide you and your team through the latest knowledge and resources available.

Educate Your Team

With all of the news circulating about COVID-19, ensure you and your team are operating with real news about what the virus is (and isn't). The wrong information can spark fear, anxiety, and distraction, so take time to gather your team periodically and share the most updated information. Start with the basics: Fever, lethargy, and shortness of breath are the most common symptoms, often appearing two to 14 days after exposure. Difficulty breathing, persistent pain or pressure in the chest, confusion, and bluish lips or face are more severe symptoms, requiring emergency medical assistance. It's spread between people in close contact, about six feet from one another, when an infected person coughs or sneezes, or more rarely, from touching a surface with the virus on it, and then touching your nose, eyes, or mouth. There's still much to be learned about this contagious virus, so for the latest (and most accurate) information, check out the NICD information website (www.sacoronavirus.co.za). It's a good idea to share this link with your team, as well, so they can take efforts to update themselves as needed.

Promote Proper Hygiene and Respiratory Etiquette

Even if your team has already moved to a remove environment, which most have, help your employees stay healthy in whatever environment they choose. COVID-19 aside, this is always a good practice, worth spending some time on. Put some posters up on your walls, reminding passers-by to cough into their elbows, sneeze into a tissue and immediately dispose of it, and wash hands for at least 20 seconds with hot, soapy water, or use alcohol-based hand sanitizer. It's also worth reiterating before even small group gatherings, when people tend to be in closer contact with one another. For those in businesses still operating, where human-to-human contact might be necessary, provide gloves, masks, hand sanitizer, and other gear to slow the spread of germs.

Reassess Workplace Cleanliness

There's one thing everyone agrees on: Washing your hands or using an alcohol-based hand sanitizer is the best way to prevent getting sick. Keep hand sanitizer at the ready throughout your work environment, and place an order for soap and disinfectant wipes. Dump those sponges and towels, as they're ground zero for person-to-person transmission, and consider increasing the frequency of cleaning, paying particular attention to doorknobs, elevator buttons, water taps, shared keyboards, refrigerator handles, cash registers, and anything else multiple people touch. Finally, ask your employees to bring their own utensils to work, particularly if you don't have a dishwasher.

Sick or At-Risk Employees Must Stay Home

There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to Coronavirus, but with testing kits still not widely available, and hospital beds at a premium, nobody who is sick should set foot in the office, or anywhere outside their home or medical facility. And if someone has recently traveled to a high-risk area, or been in contact with a Coronavirus-infected person, mandate that they work from home for at least fourteen days, until the incubation period is over. You're within your rights to tell someone they can't come to work, but you have to be consistent and clear in how that policy is implemented, per the Basic Conditions of Employment Act (BCEA), so put it in writing to your team, and share it verbally. Let employees know remote work won't impact their paid leave off. For some businesses, like utilities and manufacturing, employee job duties require them to be in the work environment, but try to dig up some longstanding administrative tasks they can assist with remotely, or maybe even some feedback reports on how you could improve overall efficiencies. Unique times call for unique measures!

Optimize the Remote Work Environment

National lockdown, quarantines, cancellations, school shut-downs, and more are ramping up the pressure for businesses to adopt a work-from-home policy. Help your teams maintain some semblance of business as usual by providing the right tools to get their jobs done. Video calls and virtual whiteboards make remote work a viable option for most office workers, where a virtual environment isn't so clear cut – brick and mortar shops, construction businesses, and real estate firms, for example – think outside the box. Can you shift to an e-commerce model, offer virtual consultations, or promote online open houses? Consult with your team to offer the tools they need to work effectively.

Offer Remote Work Guidelines

Keep your team operating in lockstep by being clear about the expectations of a remote work environment. Put it in writing, so it's clear as day, using the policy template resource below as a starting point. Just because your aren't in the office doesn't mean the work day is a free-for-all, so ensure the same level of respect and diligence is executed outside of the office as is within. Help your employees optimize their workday by encouraging them to choose a quiet space, free from distractions, and ensure everyone has an Internet connection that will let them get the job done. We've all experienced frozen video conference faces, so it may be worth increasing Internet speeds if this is a concern. For collaborative environments, define consistent work hours across the team, when everyone is required to be available and responsive. On the flip side, just because you're working from home doesn't mean you don't still need breaks now and again, so for more structured environments, schedule in lunch hours and fifteen minute breaks for a quick run to the bathroom or a walk around the block, and enlist backup during these times as needed. For less structured environments, be clear about deliverables and check in with your team often to see how they're responding to the shift in their workday. Some people note an uptick in efficiencies when they're away from the office buzz, while others get distracted. Stay close to your team with daily check-ins to keep everyone on point and resuming business as usual.

Review and Share Your Paid Leave and Sick Leave Policies

It's likely that this is the first time your company has experienced a global pandemic, so your current paid leave policy might need a little tweaking. Whether they're caring for themselves or others, your employees may be personally impacted by coronavirus, and the last thing you want to do is encourage an employee to jeopardize their health by coming to work when they shouldn't. Lay down some general guidelines for clarity, but also make it clear that there are exceptions to every rule in these upside down times, so let your team know they can come to you with any specific concerns regarding their unique situation. As schools are closing, and as elderly people need additional care, caretakers may need some consideration. Also, employees with existing respiratory issues, or who are over the age of 60, are likely experiencing some added uneasiness, so devise a plan to support their needs. Just make sure your decisions are applied consistently across your company, ensuring your workplace is free of discrimination and harassment on the basis of any protected status, such as race, national origin, and perceived disability.

Relax. You've Got This.

While the world learns more about COVID-19, and a vaccine or other long-term solution comes to market, you're doing everything you can to keep your team and your business healthy. As questions arise, turn to your community of entrepreneurs to help you through the many ways your business may be impacted, and adapt as the environment changes. What has and hasn't worked for you and your business? Please share your feedback with other business owners on this app.