A quick guide on using Lucidity to manage Return to Work in the COVID-NORMAL world.
Welcome to 2022, a year where we begin to start living in the new “COVID-normal”.
January has seen most of Australia hit with growing numbers of people contracting COVID-19 - leading to staff shortages and businesses having to work under substantial uncertainty amidst ever-changing workplace health and safety guidelines, outbreaks, vaccines, testing and close contact isolation requirements.
Although we hope that this “COVID-Normal” is only a temporary phase, navigating the processes of your entire workforce returning to the workplace is a challenging objective for the best of us.
Here is a quick guide on how to use Lucidity’s Inform, Return to Work and Contractor modules to help make this enormous job easier.
Lucidity Return to Work (RTW) is a module that was initially established prior to the COVID-19 outbreak to help employers manage employees' Return to Work processes following physical injuries rather than medical illnesses.
However, alongside a few of Lucidity’s integrated modules, the Lucidity RTW module can also assist businesses in managing the ongoing support for workers who have tested positive to COVID, especially those suffering from long covid symptoms.
In one central location, the RTW process records a range of information about the injury, logs medical certificates, creates Return to Work plans and notifies the coordinator of upcoming critical dates.
Managing Vaccines/Booster shots
Just about every workplace in every state of Australia requires that onsite employees have their first and second dose of COVID-19 Vaccine. While it is not necessary to keep a record of exact dates as this process is managed via QR codes, changing legislation in some industries is already dictating that employees must have their third dose before they can return to work. We are seeing many clients currently using inForm to track their employee's vaccine requirements easily and successfully.
Lucidity’s employee record management system and medical certificate logs can also help employers keep up to date to ensure that all onsite staff have had their complying first, second, third and pending changing legislation, ongoing booster shots.
Isolation requirements and Contact tracing
InForm can also assist your organisation to keep logs of when employees are confirmed positive, waiting for a test result or are considered a close contact. This can also help with payroll/sick leave if required.
Furthermore, if your organisation utilises the OnSite module, you will have a detailed insight into where employees were onsite and who they may have come into contact with.
Liability and Compliance
From a liability perspective, ensuring that you comply with your local workplace health and safety regulations is an important element of overall workplace health and safety. Businesses face fines of over $10,000 if an unvaccinated employee is found to be working onsite without an exemption.
Furthermore, as the rules and regulations change regarding booster shots, it may soon become the responsibility of the employer to ensure that all workers have an up to date covid certificate. This can be achieved via Lucidity.
Creating Return to Work Plans
Lucidity RTW has the ability to streamline your employee’s Return to Work after being infected with COVID. At present, the only information you need as an employer is a confirmed negative result, however, you can use the module to set up your internal policies and processes however you see fit to ensure that the RTW prerequisites have been completed before the infected employee returns to the workplace.
Duty of Care to employees returning to a safe working environment
One of the biggest challenges workplaces face during this time is the transmission of the virus within the workplace. Unfortunately, there is not much that can be done about this.
However, with Lucidity's suite of modules available for streamlined workplace health and safety monitoring, you can provide your team with the peace of mind that all proactive and reactive measures are taken to ensure that transmission is minimised.
Restrictions and requirements continue to be updated as the situation evolves.
Each state and territory have different restrictions. Employers and employees need to stay up to date with the restrictions and requirements that apply in their state or territory:
Please contact us if you would like to better understand how you can use Lucidity to help manage covid and your employees returning to work.