Cold and flu season: seven steps to protect your team

In Canada, respiratory illnesses typically spike from October through April, making now a good time to review workplace practices that can help reduce the spread of illness. For convenience stores and small grocers, this is especially important. As community hubs serving customers throughout the day for fuel, snacks, meals, beverages and essential items, these businesses experience hundreds of customer interactions each day. Preventing the spread of illness helps keep employees healthy, minimizes disruptions and maintains the excellent service customers expect.

Why start before that first cough or sniffle? Because once illnesses start to circulate, they can spread quickly through the workplace and a few sick employees can create significant scheduling challenges, increase pressure on the rest of the team and affect customer service. 

Every customer visit matters and taking simple steps to protect employees and customers can help create a cleaner, healthier shopping experience that encourages repeat visits and supports business success.

Here are some tips to help safeguard your team, protect your customers and prevent the spread of respiratory illness this season.

Use these expert tips to protect employees from respiratory illnesses.

1. Enhance housekeeping and sanitation controls

Most respiratory diseases are spread by touching contaminated surfaces. Ensure your stockroom has a full inventory of cleaning supplies and institute frequent cleanings of high-touch surfaces and shared spaces, such as door handles, phones, keyboards/keypads, countertops and point of sale/payment terminal (e.g. Interact machine), washrooms and food service areas. If possible, also provide hand sanitizes for both customers and staff. 

2. Ensure your ventilation system is doing its job

Fresh air plays an important role in reducing the spread of respiratory illnesses. Increase outdoor air flow through your HVAC system, maintain or upgrade air filters and open windows or doors when weather allows. You may also want to consider using a portable air purifier in high-traffic areas.

3. Promote good hygiene 

When it comes to preventing respiratory illness, some of the most impactful strategies are also the simplest:

• Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. If a tissue isn't available, cough or sneeze into your elbow.
• Wash your hands regularly with soap and water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

4. Advise employees to stay home if they are sick. 

Make sure people who are sick with a respiratory illness, go home or stay home until they are well. 

While an employee’s absence can create scheduling challenges, encouraging team members to stay home when they are sick is essential to protecting the health of others and maintaining a productive workplace. Research shows that working while ill can reduce productivity by one-third or more, affecting both the quality and quantity of work.

5. Offer curbside pickup/online shopping

Where possible, offer curbside pickup/delivery to minimize contact between staff and customers.

6. Check-in

Regularly ask how your team is doing. You may learn they are feeling unwell before they come forward about an illness on their own. 

7. Create a culture of health and safety

Foster an environment where health and safety is prioritized and open communication is encouraged. 
Share accurate health information from trusted sources so that staff understand who’s at greatest risk of becoming ill, how the flu spreads and preventative measures they can take. Also ensure employees feel supported in taking preventive measures. Consider posting locations of local clinics or pharmacies offering the flu vaccine and/or offering staff time off work to get immunized.

Creating a healthier workplace is a shared responsibility. By working together, employers and employees can help reduce absenteeism, protect the well-being of both staff and customers and keep business running smoothly this cold and flu season.