Five Easy Steps for Preparing Employees for the Cold & Flu Season

Every winter, there’s a significant rise in both cold and flu cases. Thanks to masking and social distancing during the pandemic, cold and flu cases seem to have all but disappeared. However, experts are expecting a resurgence this winter.

When someone comes to work with a contagious disease, it can quickly spread to others around them, and then you may have a wave of illness going through your company. Taking care of your employees, and encouraging them to take care of themselves, is paramount in helping everyone stay healthy through cold and flu season. Here are five easy ways to prepare your employees and company for the upcoming season.

Educating employees

Making sure your employees know the symptoms of the flu and how to recognize its onset is critical in preventing the spread of it. Employees should also know the information about flu shots available to them in their community. The more employees are educated on the impact of the flu, the more active employees will be in preventing its spread.

Keeping the workplace clean

This may not apply to every company — for example, if you are permanently working from home. However, if your employees are in the workplace on any semi-regular basis, it’s crucial to make sure you keep it as clean as possible. This may include providing hand sanitizer for all employees and making sure proper supplies for hand washing are made available to them around the office. You may also want to consider having cleaning staff come in more regularly (if possible) to make sure the workplace is germ-free for when employees come in.

Flu season strategies

No matter how much we try, employees still get sick. With that in mind, it’s important to make sure you have plans in place if an employee does catch the flu or a cold. If an employee is out sick – even if they work from home – do you need someone to help cover their daily tasks until they feel better? When employees are ill, they need to focus on getting better and not worry about all the work piling up for when they come back. So if you have a plan in place, you can ease some stress, and your employees can focus on just getting better.

Host a flu shot clinic

Everyone is busy, and they all have lives outside of work, so it can sometimes be challenging to get to a flu shot clinic during the day. If you host a clinic for your employees, they may be more likely to get the shot. It will be important to promote and talk about the clinic before it happens, so make sure you give plenty of time to make everyone aware that it’s happening.

Review your sick time/paid time off policies

If you don’t offer your employees a reasonable amount of sick time or paid time off, the impacts of cold & flu season are likely to be much more significant than necessary. If your employees know that they don’t have to worry about sacrificing income because they are sick, they can take just one or two days off. This means they can take the time to recover and come back to work healthy – and that they won’t be spreading the illness to other employees.

While cold and flu season can be challenging to get through, with some careful planning and making sure your employees are well cared for, you can help everyone stay as healthy as possible this year!

Contact TeksMed today

In light of the pandemic, you’ll want to make sure you take every precaution to ensure that your staff stays safe, particularly during cold and flu season. Not only does TeksMed offer disability management and return to work programs, but we also offer COVID-19 screening and testing through QuikCare Health. Contact us today to learn more.