November is here, bringing with it a number of seasonal human factors risks, each worthy of highlighting in toolbox talks and digital display presentations. Starting with daylight saving time, which occurs the first Sunday of the month, and ending with Thanksgiving, the final stretch of autumn can be marked by fatigue, rushing and frustration. The assumption when we set our clocks back is that we gain an hour of sleep and ought to be better rested, but the resulting darker evenings can cause disorientation, difficult driving conditions and a noticeable increase in seasonal affective disorder.
If that sounds like a lot to deal with, it is—there’s a reason this month hosts National Seatbelt Day, Drowsy Driving Prevention Week and the Tie One On For Safety initiative against impaired driving. But that’s not all: November is firmly located within cold, flu and COVID season.
As you can imagine, layering the exhaustion, annoyance and distraction of illness on top of hectic holiday travel and navigating dark roads can amplify the risks already at play. So when it comes to creating your facility’s digital display presentation for November, why not dedicate your slides to helping prevent communicable diseases from spreading throughout your facility? It’s a great way to show workers you care about their well-being and also introduce new habits that can mitigate the negative effects that often accompany this season of sickness.
The first thing you want to do in your digital display presentation is grab your potential audience’s attention. Try a question like:
Do you know the difference between a cold and COVID-19?
This could be a great opening question to make people stop and watch your digital display presentation. COVID-19 is still something that can take people down and out, like the flu, and by opening with this question you can educate workers on what they need to know this cold, flu and COVID season.
Distinguishing COVID-19 from influenza can be particularly difficult because the symptoms overlap so much. It’s important to not shrug off early warning signs you might be coming down with a sickness, even if it seems like a common cold or allergies. Symptoms of a cold tend to be milder, like a runny nose, cough, congestion and sore throat, while fever, extreme exhaustion and general aches and pains are much more common with COVID-19 and flu.
That said, the taxonomy of these three diseases can be tough to navigate. A chart like this from the National Institutes of Health could be beneficial in your presentation:
Recognizing the signs of cold, flu and COVID is only half the battle. Your digital display presentation should also provide tips to prevent these illnesses from spreading and outline healthy habits workers should be working on. Here are a few general best practices to help get your presentation started:
1. Stay home if you’re unwell
Most workplaces should respect the fact that you’re not coming in to spread germs to other workers when you’re sick. It will cost the company more money to have multiple people miss their shifts than if the original person who showed symptoms just stayed home in the first place. Communicate your company policy and stance on staying home sick. A lot of workers are afraid to call in sick to work, so it’s important to be unambiguous about your expectations. If your policy is for unwell employees to protect their coworkers by staying home and getting better, let them know in your digital display presentation.
2. Wear a face mask
The first habit your collective workplace should work on is mask-wearing. Even though masks are no longer mandated for COVID, if you have any symptoms that could spread through your workplace, you should be wearing a mask in all spaces where you would come into contact with other individuals. Create a slide that encourages people to start wearing masks. Masking is proven to be effective at tamping down the spread of all three seasonal vectors, not just COVID. In fact, preventative measures like masking during the pandemic were so effective against other illnesses that an entire strain of influenza went extinct. So encourage workers to wear masks even if they’re not feeling any symptoms, as it can protect them from others, prevent asymptomatic spread and play a part in keeping everyone healthy.
3. Wash hands frequently
Cold, flu and COVID season requires more frequent hand-washing to remove germs from hands. Your digital display presentation could provide hand-washing tips such as the following:
- Wash your hands frequently.
- Wet hands and lather with soap—rub for at least 20 seconds.
- Scrub all surfaces of the hand, including between your fingers and under your fingernails, wrists and the backs of your hands.
- When washing your hands is not an option, use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol.
You could also include a diagram to illustrate proper hand-washing techniques as an additional way to communicate this in your slides.
4. Cognizant coughing or sneezing
“Coughs and sneezes spread diseases”—the saying is over a century old and it’s still true today. But coughing, and especially sneezing, in a mask is not always ideal. Your digital display presentation should ensure that people know to properly cough or sneeze into their elbow or a tissue. These are the most effective ways of containing pathogens when experiencing the louder of our involuntary symptoms. Remind folks that used tissues need to be disposed of immediately and that hand-washing or applying sanitizer right after will ensure the germs produced will not be transferred to other surfaces.
5. Watch what you’re touching
Speaking of germs moving from hands to other objects, another important thing to remember during cold, flu and COVID season is to pay attention to what you’re touching. Most surfaces are crawling with germs. This includes door handles, light switches and many other things we touch daily without thinking. One common way infections are spread is when someone touches something and then touches their eyes, nose or mouth right after. Your digital display presentation should serve as a reminder about how germs are spread, then reiterate the importance of washing your hands after you touch any shared object or surface.
6. Disinfect surfaces frequently
Communicate that workers should clean and disinfect commonly used surfaces frequently, especially if someone is presenting cold symptoms. Multiple people often touch desks, countertops, computer keyboards and telephones, leaving their germs behind for someone else to pick up. Building a habit of regularly cleaning surfaces helps keep the odds of staying healthy in everyone’s favor.
7. Keep your distance
When you work in a facility with other people, it can be hard to avoid them. In order to prevent the spread of influenza and COVID-19, it is recommended that people physically distance themselves. During the pandemic, this was called social distancing. Your digital display presentation should recommend that when possible, people should avoid close contact and try to keep six feet between themselves and others.
8. Vaccination
As part of some companies’ wellness programs, flu and COVID vaccination clinics are offered. If clinics are offered in your workplace, ensure that the dates and times are communicated in your digital display presentation. Or if time off is offered for people to attend vaccination clinics, ensure that this is communicated. Maintaining a healthy work environment during periods of high transmission sickness is a team effort—making certain every worker knows how to play their part individually is the best way to keep them all healthy.
The most important thing about this digital display presentation is to get people talking. Most of the information that will be shared is not new, but a reminder can put things on people’s radars and prevent them from slipping into complicity, especially in a busy month like November. Use our guide to creating digital safety presentations for more ideas to put together a great set of information that engages people in your facility and keeps safety front of mind. Stay healthy (and keep others healthy around you) this holiday season!