After European countries such as Spain, Italy, Frace, and Ireland start to reopen considering government's plan to normality, specialists predict that dedicated Covid-19 compliance officers could become ordinary. Organizations will need more compliance professionals to deal with social distancing and other COVID-related protocols. When re-opening, companies must have these rules and protocols as a top of mind in the office and when dealing with the public.
According to the Compliance Association, an existing compliance officer or other members of management could have the role of making sure the company is complying with COVID regulator and the health and safety local authority:
“In each workplace, someone will have to assess how employees and customers can adhere to new rules such as maintaining a two-meter distance from colleagues and other customers and minimizing the level of face-to-face interaction. This will need to happen, preferably, before businesses reopen and employees return to work.” Says Michael Kavanaghthe, Chief executive at ACOI in a recent interview.
During Covid-19, the pressure on organizations was mostly reputational. Regulators wanted to make sure they were serving their customers and the community without distress. The focus was on keep markets open and orderly, help firms continue to operate, protect consumers and small businesses, and maintain high standards of conduct.
At this point, all that is still valid, however, there is a certain normative effect on organizations now, and the next step is to make sure organizations are prepared to go back to normal activities with the restrictions and new working environment this pandemic has brought to society.
After going through all the new processes, such as how to keep compliance on the home office and best ways to monitoring employees; the reputation risk continues real and organizations must think about what is coming next and how to deal with the post-COVID-19 measures.
All the questions below must be asked and organizations should now be working to deal with not so “normal back to normal”.
- Return to work?
- Open the office?
- Should I redesign the workplace?
- Social distancing and masks at work?
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