How a Workforce Management System Supports Your COVID Safe Plans

Imagine the following scenario.

One of your workers unknowingly comes to work while infectious with COVID-19. Days later when symptoms start, they get tested and return a positive result. You’re talking to government health officials and contact tracers, and now your workplace has become an exposure site.

You have two options.

Option One

You don’t have any accessible, useful data about your workforce. You don’t know who was on site, on what days and at what times. Your workplace is closed for deep cleaning. With no clear picture of who might be considered a contact, in an abundance of caution, your entire workforce is at home self-isolating. Several days, potentially weeks, of downtime will cost your business lots of money.

Option Two

You have a digital workforce management solution, like Pegasus. You can download the data of who was on site within minutes, handing it over to government health officials. With easily accessible contact information, you send texts and emails to affected workers so they know to get tested immediately and isolate until they return a negative result. Your workplace is closed for deep cleaning, and you’re open again in a few days.

We know which option we’d choose.

Co-Existing with COVID-19

As Australia reaches higher double-dose vaccination rates, restrictions ease and borders open, COVID-19 will continue to be a threat to health in the workplace. One you need to manage.

Your business needs a COVID-19 Safe Plan which must be followed in accordance with government health advice. WHS obligations include protecting your workforce from illness.

We’ve seen many of our clients implement their own safety measures to curb the spread, especially within the mining industry.

“The sites are taking testing into their own hands. They’re doing rapid antigen testing off their own back, every two to three days. Workers have to return a negative result to be allowed on site,” says Tim Workman, Pegasus Client Account Manager.

Such is the importance of good planning.

What’s Your Business Plan?

As we’re looking at the roadmap out of lockdowns, contact tracing will change as vaccination rates increase. This doesn’t mean there’s no risk—and workplaces will still be required to have their COVID-19 Safe Plans up to scratch.

You could decide in your workplace that even as things change, you want stay cautious and carry out your own tracing to do your best to stay on top of outbreaks on your sites and projects.

“These clients are prioritising safety. If they get a positive case on one of their sites, they’re going to want to have access to data like what is found in Pegasus to do their own contract tracing,” says Tim.

“If you get a positive case on your site, instead of saying ‘we don’t know who was here, we’re going to have to shut down’, you can get the data from the Pegasus system in minutes and only have to close for a short amount of time.”

The Cost of Not Investing

Investing in a digital workforce management solution might seem costly, but when you consider the financial impact to your business if you’re forced to close for an extended period due to a lack of available data, it’s a cost worth paying.

“Even if you only save yourself four days of closure, that will pay for the system in its entirety over a few years. The return on investment in this scenario would be fantastic,” says Tim.

How are you developing your COVID-19 Safe Plan? Speak to Pegasus today to discuss how we can help you manage your workforce risk.

October is National Safe Work Month—a time to commit to building a safe and healthy workplace. The theme this year is think safe. work safe. be safe.

During the month of October, we’ll be exploring how you can approach safety in your workplace by looking at each part of the theme. This week, we’ve looked at think safe.

think safe– is the first step to thinking about work health and safety, which covers the planning and forethought that Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs) (such as employers and small business owners) must do to identify risks and maintain healthy and safe workplaces.