COVID-19 has taught us a great deal about the true nature of interaction with our valued clients. Our health and safety manager has outlined our approach.
We’ve been living through unprecedented times over the past year, as businesses across the world navigate a “new” way of working. When it comes to a crane hire and rigging specialist company like Concord Cranes, working in a COVID-19 compliant manner has taken some refining. When it comes to the sales team in particular, the team were used to meeting with clients face-to-face to discuss project requirements and scope easily and freely, but all of this had to change when the pandemic hit in March 2020.
We spoke to Concord Cranes’ Health and Safety Manager, Anton De Bruyn, and asked him to give us more insight into how the Concord sales teams are currently interacting with customers during the pandemic.
What COVID-19 compliant measures has the sales team had to implement when interacting with clients?
We began a return-to-work COVID-19 induction with all employees when we were safely allowed to return to work, and for our sales team, we trained them to do a few things differently from the norm:
- Not to interact personally with clients as far as practical but to rather opt for online meetings and appointments.
- If interaction was necessary, meetings are to be as small as possible (one-on-one where possible) and safe social distancing of at least 1.5m from each other is to be always maintained.
- During interactions, the wearing of cloth masks is essential at all times and no physical contact such as handshakes to occur.
What Health & Safety training has been delivered to the sales team about COVID-19 safe interactions?
There have been several training methods delivered in detail to the Concord sales team (and the company as a whole) to firstly prepare them for this “new” way of doing business but also to empower them to keep themselves and their customers as safe as possible.
Anton lists the Health & Safety training programmes that have been delivered so far:
- Return to Work Program
- Identification of high-risk employees
- Return to Work Induction – COVID-19 protocols and controls
- Correct application of face masks and hand sanitisers
- Reporting of contact with symptomatic or positive COVID-19 cases
- Reporting and recording of Track and Trace forms for contact and COVID-19 positive persons
- Correct Isolation process if COVID-19 positive or direct contact with a positive person
“All the teams in the company have been a part of the internal audit process to monitor compliance to the COVID-19 prescribed protocol and all have been very disciplined in following all the procedures. This has enabled us to keep exposure minimised by preventing physical group meetings and keeping interactions as virtual as possible.” Says De Bruyn.
The company has also implemented on-going messaging that is shared with both the sales teams as well as the rest of the company, regularly. These include group WhatsApp messages to keep staff informed about statistics, health & safety related communications and general awareness information, email communication and awareness sharing, and weekly toolbox talks which includes a segment on Coronavirus awareness.
“We’ve done our best to prepare our staff for working safely during these unprecedented times and we have been very pleased at how willing they have been to comply and stay safe in all aspects of their roles and responsibilities.” Adds De Bruyn.
To learn more about our crane hire and rigging services, contact the Concord Cranes team today on 011 805 8071.
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