KnowNow In Big Drive to Help Keep Manufacturers Open : As COVID-19 restrictions ease, companies are ready to rekindle the collaboration, productivity and creative spark that comes from working face-to-face. But employees aren’t so sure. 

Recent survey results published in HR Magazine reveal that more than half (57.9%) of UK staff are afraid to return to work due to COVID-19 safety concerns. As the economy reopens, companies need to go the extra mile to earn employee trust. Frequent, quick and pain-free testing can fill the confidence gap and fast-track the return to regular onsite working.   

Around one in three people with COVID-19 don’t show any symptoms, so twice-weekly testing of your workforce can safeguard your colleagues – and avoid the financial hit of outbreaks, shutdowns and staff absence. 

For your workers, testing can also be an indicator of company values. The pandemic has heightened staff expectations of health and safety, and teams are looking to employers to take every possible preventative step. The question is, if your employees don’t feel protected, will they be productive?

To make workplace testing successful it has to be fast, pain-free and proactive. Currently, screening generally happens following the onset of symptoms; a colleague feels unwell and carries out an invasive throat and nasal swab. By that time, COVID-19 carriers are likely to have already passed on the virus. 

What if you could pinpoint cases in your workplace before they become highly infectious? It’s now possible to screen for the virus in minutes using a fast test that’s as easy as brushing your teeth. The new generation of ultrasensitive, on-the-spot tests uses a saliva swab to detect the virus as early as day three to four of infection – a day or two earlier than most other screening methods. 

To accelerate our return to face-to-face working – and all the benefits it brings – twice-weekly COVID-19 screening needs to become a habit. By making the process speedy, straightforward and accessible, you can normalise testing within your workforce – just as face coverings, social distancing and good hand hygiene are now a natural part of employees’ everyday routines. Details are logged on a web-app, creating a personal digital screening record that can be used to gain access to your sites; so you can be sure only non-infectious employees are heading to work. 

MEM readers can request your free KnowNowTM sample pack and learn more at www.knownow.com/sample

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