Suna Interior Design's Covid-19 update : 18.5.20
Covid-19 : Update
18.5.20
Firstly, we would like to thank all our clients and suppliers for their continued support during the Corona virus pandemic. We have remained open throughout and have been fully committed to fulfilling our contracted work and new tenders albeit under unusual circumstances.
Following the changes to the government guidelines on Sunday 10th May we have been working to create a staggered strategy to enable us to carry out the show home & marketing suite installation service which has been the most impacted by the restrictions.
We are utilising the government guidelines, specifically their document ‘working-safely-during-covid-19-construction-outdoors’ to ensure we adhere to all requirements to allow us to keep our staff safe. It is critical we can provide the same great service to our clients whilst putting everyone’s health and safety at the forefront of our operations.
WAREHOUSE & ORDERING
The first stage of our process is to open our warehouse from Monday 18th May which allows us to access our stored items and accept deliveries for new orders placed. Our ordering will start again in the same week with the aim to finish any outstanding items for jobs that were put on hold and get the ball rolling on any new projects we have won in the meantime.
As you can imagine, we have a backlog of projects and our Operations team have been working continuously throughout the lockdown to record the status of all stalled projects and create a plan for when they become live. We will work as quickly as possible to fulfill each project but as always this is a collaborative process and we need to ensure the safety of our staff throughout. We will co-ordinate with your teams, working from home and on site, to plan the best approach in each instance.
It is important to understand that our suppliers are still not up to full capacity and therefore the lead times and stock availability may be affected for some time to come. We will keep all our clients up to date with their specific projects to advise on any changes or delays we may incur.
DESIGN WORK & PRESENTATIONS
Other than our warehouse team we have decided to keep all our other staff working from home for now. All communication and presentations will continue to be carried out over email and audio or video call which has worked successfully during the lockdown.
Our designers will have access to our office to select fabric and material samples if required. We have set up strict guidelines for all our staff to gain access to the office following our H&S strategy adhering to the government guidelines.
SITE WORK & INSTALLATIONS
Referring to the ‘working-safely-during-covid-19-construction-outdoors’ government guidelines we have pulled out the following headings as some of the areas we need to consider when arranging site visits and installations.
Social Distancing
We will maintain social distancing in all areas where possible.
Where the social distancing guidelines cannot be followed in full in relation to a particular activity, we must consider whether that activity needs to continue for the business to operate, and, if so, take all the mitigating actions possible to reduce the risk of transmission between our staff. Mitigating actions include:
Further increasing the frequency of hand washing and surface cleaning.
Keeping the activity time involved as short as possible.
Using back-to-back or side-to-side working (rather than face¬to-face) whenever possible.
Reducing the number of people each person has contact with by using ‘fixed teams or partnering’ (so each person works with only a few others).
Coming to and leaving site
We will contact the site teams ahead of arriving to ensure all relevant precautions are already in place.
We will send through our risk assessments and request the site-specific H&S procedures to provide assurance to our staff.
All visits will be booked in with the site staff so they know when we will be on site and what work we will be carrying out.
We reserve the right to remove our staff from site if the required precautions are not being carried out of if they feel the environment is unsafe.
Many of our staff travel to and from sites on public transport. As this is not currently considered safe, we are assessing the best way for our staff to travel. This may mean we have a more limited team available to us and therefore have lower capacity to complete installations initially. We will contact all clients with live projects to agree the relevant timeframes on a project by project basis.
Moving around buildings and work sites
Our staff will follow all guidelines set out in the site-specific inductions to comply to the H&S policies.
Site-specific inductions will be essential to ensure our staff have all the relevant information on the correct working practices on each site.
Our aim will be to avoid any unnecessary movement across or within the construction site. Ideally a dedicated route to and from the show home or marketing suite can be setup to assist with this. Our team will discuss this with the site ahead of the installation.
Meetings – Handovers
Consideration to be made whether a handover can be carried out by video call instead of in person. If not then social distancing must be enforced if meeting with clients or site personal on site.
Common areas
If our staff need to use the welfare facilities on site it is essential the procedures for this are highlighted within the site inductions.
Our staff will not use any site canteens and will bring their own food from home for their lunch to avoid unnecessary contact.
Accidents, security and other incidents
In an emergency, for example, an accident or fire, people do not have to stay 2m apart if it would be unsafe.
Our staff will follow the relevant procedures set out in the site-specific inductions.
People involved in the provision of assistance to others should pay particular attention to sanitation measures immediately afterwards including washing hands.
Providing and explaining available guidance
Our staff will follow our company H&S procedures for working on site as normal with particular relevance to the new protocols put in place to protect them during the Corona Virus pandemic.
Our staff will follow all site-specific signage and guidance.
Cleaning the workplace
It will be expected that the site is kept clean daily and all other workers will be complying to the cleaning procedures set out by the government guidelines.
Frequent cleaning of work areas and equipment between uses.
Clearing workspaces and removing waste and belongings from the work area at the end of a shift.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) and face coverings
Standard site PPE is already in place for all our employers where necessary.
The guidelines state that ‘Workplaces should not encourage the precautionary use of extra PPE to protect against COVID-19 outside clinical settings or when responding to a suspected or confirmed case of COVID-19.’ As such additional PPE will only be issued when deemed necessary
Shift patterns and working groups
When working on site we will keep numbers to a minimum to avoid multiple people working in the same location at the same time.
We are liaising with all our subcontractors to understand their H&S procedures to ensure we can work with them in a safe and compliant way.
Work-related travel
Many of our staff travel to and from sites on public transport. As this is not currently considered safe, we are assessing the best way for our staff to travel.
This may mean we have a more limited team available to us and therefore have lower capacity to complete installations initially. We will contact all clients with live projects to agree the relevant timeframes on a project by project basis.
We are still assessing the risk when working on locations that would require an overnight stay for our staff. This will be assessed, and a plan will be determined and discussed with the relevant clients where necessary.
Inbound and outbound goods
We use sub-contractors for our main deliveries and collections from site. We are working with them to ensure they have the correct procedures in comply with government guidelines.
All deliveries to site will be booked in with the site team and the access into the property to be agreed in advance.
All subcontractors that will be working on the site alongside our team will complete the site-specific inductions and provide all relevant H&S documents to site prior to attending site.
This is just a snapshot of a much more comprehensive document we are currently preparing to comply with the government guidance. We are finalising this document and will issue it to all clients in due course.
The changes to our working practices will inevitably slow things down initially but we are confident that if we work together and keep open communication throughout that we can start to get things moving and fulfill the work for you all.
Getting the installation service back up and running during the pandemic presents its challenges and impacts on everyone in the industry. We want to assure you that we are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe whilst we reinstate some of the services which have been on hold during the lock down.
We will continue to keep you up to date and in the mean time if you have a specific project you would like to discuss please get in touch with my relevant colleagues or feel free to speak directly to either of us or a member of the team.
Keep safe and keep in touch.
Kind regards,
Helen & Becks
To subscribe to our Journal and receive notification of new posts please go to SUBSCRIBE and select JOURNAL, thank you!