Employees benefit from companies making premises Covid-free: survey 

Despite the figurative dust of Covid appearing to settle, the rollercoaster crisis has been difficult, with companies and organisations facing numerous challenges to keep their doors open and employees safe from the disease.

Now, with more states lifting the mask and work from home mandates, comes word that the work and determination of business leaders to keep operations going is being recognised—if not completely appreciated—by employees.

According to a recent survey of more than 9600 employees, the majority of workers gave their companies high marks for keeping them safe and supporting them during the pandemic. Indeed, 84 per cent of employees who said they feel safe and are comfortable at work plan to stay with their employer for the foreseeable future.

Almost three-quarters of the workers (70%) reported feeling comfortable in their workplace. Two-thirds said their companies were keeping them productive (67%) and safe (66%) from Covid-19 and more than half (58%) believe their employer has supported their wellbeing.

Graham Gordon, CEO of Gardian believes that the past two years have been challenging for both employers and their employees, and the ‘new norm’ is still being trialled.

“There isn’t a rulebook for how to navigate a pandemic successfully – particularly one that has disrupted multiple sectors and mutated as often as Covid-19 has,” said Gordon. “Organisations have needed to adapt operations continually and make their employees’ health and wellbeing a top priority. As our own research shows, most employees embraced their employers’ actions to keep them safe at work and support them. Those efforts are having a positive impact on employees.”

From enforcing social distancing and sanitising high-touch areas frequently to introducing shift work and contactless deliveries, companies are still trying to eliminate all chances of virus spread. Forward thinking organisations have implemented regular surveillance testing both via Point of Care or at-home self-testing with rapid antigen kits and those that recognise the importance of repeatability and secure reporting have bolstered their Covid-free plan by managing the program via the easily downloadable Gardian Self Check app and Test Tracker management software.

Gordon added that more than half of those surveyed (58%) favour regular testing to enter the worksite versus 17 per cent who oppose testing.

“As corporates ramp up the employee count on site and in offices, and concerns over the Omicron variant subside, we’re likely to see around 85 per cent of the workforce back behind their desks within the next couple of months,” said Gordon. “Over the same period however, Australia will experience winter, and if monitoring the international spread of the virus has taught us anything, we’re also likely to have a surge of the BA.2 variant. Surveillance testing is going to be critical in maintaining the new norm in terms of business continuity and ensuring that workers continue to stay well.

“Having a robust Covid-19 testing program in place whereby staff can home-test, record and share their result with an employer prior to going into work is the only way to effectively stop the spread of the virus and maintain a Covid-free work environment,” said Gordon.

Reiterating the importance of early detection on a significantly larger scale, Sheriff of NSW Department of Communities and Justice Tracey Hall said they opted to use the user-friendly Gardian T3 rapid antigen tests and reporting solution as the health and wellbeing of all staff, court and tribunal users is of paramount importance.

“Repeatability is critical when it comes to eliminating the potential for false or invalid results. With most nasopharyngeal or anterior nares swabs if one doesn’t follow the instructions for use, maintain the device in a conducive temperature, observe the recommended time allocation or use too little or too much buffer solution, any one of these factors, or combination thereof, could adversely affect the test performance and/or produce invalid results. And in the case of a false negative, the person undertaking the test may go on to infect others.”