10 Things Contractor Should Do During COVID-19 Outbreak

The entire world is suffering from a Coronavirus or COVID-19 Outbreak and it is now pandemic. This virus is life-threatening and the number of deaths across the world is increasing day by day. This has affected the economy all over the world and people are afraid of what’s going to happen now.

Similarly, the construction industry is also affected. The contractors and sub-contractors are worried about what should they do in such situations to do when the demand for work is decreasing with every passing day. There are some people who still think that things are normal and there is no need to shut the businesses. But that’s not true! For construction cost estimation, get in touch with a professional estimating company near you.

One of the best ways to handle this situation is to be prepared. In the following blog, we are going to discuss the 10 things that should be done by the contractors and sub-contractors:

1-Follow Reputable Sources

There is a lot of misinformation circling around the coronavirus. So, it will be best for people to follow reputable sources to get information about the COVID-19 Outbreak. You should rely on the news provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). The organization is updating the people on a daily basis and closely monitoring the situation all over the world.

Other than this, you should follow the news provided by the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This is definitely a reliable source and it provides useful sources for the employers and the general public.

The next important source is the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The organization has set a separate section for COVID-19 Outbreak. The section will be explaining the standards, risk assessment, and prevention tips.

Furthermore, the industries association is also a source of reliable information includes Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA), and Sheet Metal & Air Conditioning Contractors National Association (SMACNA).

2-Get in Touch with Employers

It will be best to connect with your employers. There is no need to allow one employee to send the email to others. The employer can set up a remote meeting using a different app or record a message to communicate with the employees. Communication is important to update the people so it should be done with ease and without any problem.

If you want to get the estimating project cost, then you should connect with a professional estimating company in your area for the correct estimate.

3-Give Training to Employees

As we all know that it is suggested by many of the reputable authorities related to the health that people should frequently do hand washing to keep them safe from COVID-19 Outbreak. So, it is the duty of the company to train its employees and instruct them about all the essential precautionary measurements so that they can stay safe.

The company can arrange toolbox talks or meeting with the employees to guide them on how they can prevent respiratory illness at a work site. Furthermore, it is important to add some humor during the meeting for increasing the employee’s engagement. Furthermore, to the right project cost estimation, you need to connect with a skilled estimating company.

Moving on, besides training, it is important to adopt some good housekeeping practices. It is essential to disinfect some of the commonly used surfaces such as:

Light switches
Doorknobs
Telephone
Water coolers
Shared tools and equipment.
Shared tablets and smartphones.
Restroom facilities door and faucet handles.

4-Listen to Your Employees

Employees are the backbone of a company. It will be best for the company or organization to listen to their employee’s concerns. The working culture should be good enough to let employees speak about their concerns. Most importantly, health safety culture should be the best. The health of employees should be given priority and they should be allowed to work from home as one of the suggested precautions by the authorities.

5-Develop an Infection Control Plan (Fund It)

First, that needs to be done is to prepare a checklist for evaluation overall preparedness of the outbreak or epidemic. It is important for you to update your existing infection control plan so that you can add some specific procedures to control the infection.

The three key things to be highlighted here are:

Train your employees regarding illness prevention practices.
Let employees stay at home if they are ill.
Tell the important requirement to requirements before returning to work after illness.

Creating an infection control plan for your company will help you to determine the following things:

Name and the responsibilities of the employees.
Assessment of the risk to different departments and individuals that will include temporary employees, janitorial employees, and agencies.
All the precautionary measures for controlling the spread of the virus.
Policies are related to employees who have ill family members.
How you are going to talk to employees for staying at home if any symptoms of virus appear?
How you are going to monitor or follow up with the employees who are sick at home.
You have to design policies for getting in touch with the employees who are on international travel for work or on a vacation.
What control and measures will be taken if any employee is diagnosed with the virus?

The company might have to get in touch with a lawyer regarding the infection communications guidelines especially for the areas where the COVID-19 positive employee has in contact with multiple clients and coworkers.

6-Develop a Contingency Plan

Other than ensuring the health and safety of the employees, companies have to make a contingency plan so that the business operation should not be affected. The contingency plan should be made in connection with the infection control plan to have smooth business operations before returning to work. To hire a professional construction cost estimator, you need to contact an estimating company within your area for quick estimates.

7-Equip Your Employees

It is important to also equip the employees with all the essential things they need to follow the contingency plan. The employees should get all the resources needed for smooth business operations.

8-Protect Employees

The protection of all employees is important but this should be done with more seriousness of the temporary and medically vulnerable employees.

9-Continuous Improvement

With the passage of time, you will learn new things. Try to improve your contingency plan and infection control plan to improve your business working without compromising on employee’s health.

10-Connect with Customer and Clients

As said above, communication is key. It is important for you to get in touch with your clients or customer to know their feedback in the situation of crisis.

Conclusion

These were the 10 things that need to be done for avoiding the problems during COVID-19 Outbreak. Moving on, if you are in search of the professional building cost estimator, then you should contact a professional estimating company. The expert will be using the right equipment to give you an accurate estimate for your project, be it commercial or residential.