The non-essential retail sector has finally reopened, but how do you keep your customers and staff safe?
Non-essential retailers have been able to start returning to trade. For many store owners, the hardest part of reopening in the aftermath of the COVID-19 lockdown has been implementing the necessary measures to keep customers and staff safe.
This guide will be frequently updated to reflect the latest government advice, as well as measures and initiatives we've seen from our own retail customers. Read on to discover our 5 essential steps for managing your store under social distancing measures.
As an employer, it’s your legal obligation to ensure the safety of your employees and customers in your place of business, irrespective of whether we’re in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. But during the COVID-19 outbreak, the risk is exponentially greater, not least because the threat is invisible. This means you need to be extra vigilant when completing your risk assessment.
Once you’ve completed your risk assessment, you should share this information with your employees and educate them on what it means.
The government suggests that even when you reopen, you should limit the amount of staff on your premises at any one time by only having essential employees working from your location.
What this means is if your back office staff - like administrative, accounts and marketing personnel - can feasibly work from home, they should do so.
You should also look at your employees’ medical declarations to identify any members of staff in the high-risk categories and ensure that they do not return to work. This should be done alongside consulting all of your employees about any anxiety they have about returning.
The government has set out advice and guidelines for how to keep employees and customers safe by minimising contact, which we have already seen implemented by major supermarket chains.
The government recommends you practice the following guidelines:
It would be advisable to have signage inside and outside your shop to explain to customers any social distancing measures you have implemented.
Before you reopen, it’s advisable to complete a full assessment of areas of risk that may need to continuously be cleaned on a regular basis. This should follow a deep clean of your premises before you’re due to open.
Keeping clean will require you to:
These four key objectives are part of the government’s wider advice in how to operate your shop both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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