HRO Today March 2021 - 22

COVID-19: ONE YEAR LATER
* infrastructure that will facilitate
communication and collaboration
with community leaders to
enable tracing and eventually
the delivery of vaccinations
to the workforce
and surrounding
community.
Caveats and
Complications
Companies need to
management expertise, and additional
manpower as needed. They are
security experts and advisors-not
just call center personnel.
It's important to
note that CDC
guidelines don't
allow employers
to inquire about
activities and
contacts outside of
the workplace. Private
contact tracing must be
limited strictly to employees
and other employee contacts and
potential exposures. The extent of
those exposures can be significant, however,
and the onset of cold and flu season will only make
contact tracing efforts more challenging-and more
pivotal. Any " COVID-like symptoms " must be treated
seriously. For contact tracing purposes, organizations
must assume everything is COVID-19 until the test is
negative.
recognize that the quality of
their internal messaging and
communication is critical for
the success of any contact
tracing program.
A true security partner
allows organizations
to pivot, expand, or
adapt the program if
necessary, delivering
a level of focus,
flexibility, and
efficiency that an inhouse
effort simply
cannot offer. That
flexibility is especially
important given the
relative newness and
unpredictable nature of the
coronavirus, and the speed with
which circumstances can change in a
region or an organization.
Another issue to consider when establishing
contact tracing in a work environment is that a
certain percentage of employees may be nervous,
uncertain, reluctant, and or even hostile toward the
program. Make sure employees understand in no
uncertain terms that there is no job-related impact if
they contract COVID-19, and that the program is solely
designed to protect employees and keep the entire
team as healthy as possible during a challenging global
pandemic.
Finally, recognize that the potential long-term liability
implications of COVID-19 exposure are still unclear.
Comprehensive Solutions
The best security partners are proven providers of
comprehensive contact tracing solutions. They are able
to provide supplementary investigations support, crisis
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HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | MARCH 2021
The right program should have robust technology to
identify sick or symptomatic individuals and a system
that triggers and initiates a contact tracing protocol.
The right partner should also be able to handle
any required reporting to public health entities for
companies that do not have the capacity to handle that
themselves.
The New Normal
Companies need to recognize that the quality of their
internal messaging and communication is critical for
the success of any contact tracing program. Many
organizations understand that the implementation
of a high-quality contact tracing program is the ideal
moment to revisit their overall crisis management and
business continuity plans. Some of the communication
channels and monitoring/reporting infrastructure
that gets put in place to handle contact tracing can
and should be a part of crisis planning and emergency
management protocols going forward.
Miguel Martinez is vice president of the global investigations unit
for Pinkerton.
HRO Today March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HRO Today March 2021
