Working safely during the pandemic

Even though decorators and tradesmen are allowed to continue working in some areas during this latest national lockdown, it's important to ensure you stay up to date on, and adhere to, the right guidelines on how to work with clients, and in their homes.

To help keep yourself safe at work and to support you in reassuring your customers that you’re following all the correct guidelines, the UK Government has put together a guide on everything you need to think about, before you go to work in someone’s home.

This covers the risk assessment process you need to follow, including: 

• What's changed
• Who should go to work
• How to follow social distancing in people’s home
• How to interact with customers
• Cleaning your work area
• PPE and face coverings

We’ve pulled the below points together to give you the best start possible.

Think about all the risks…

Before going to work in someone’s property, consider all the risks and how you will deal with them.

A risk assessment document is a simple way to identify these, in the work environment, and clarify the ways that you can make it safer to work; by covering all the ways you are going to minimise the risks.

You can use a risk assessment template to complete and share with the homeowner to demonstrate to them that you’ve thought about everything and made appropriate plans.

Avoid unnecessary visits to the property

To reduce the risk as much as possible, think about how you can limit the amount of time you need to spend in the customer’s home.

If you have a team working on a number of jobs, try to send the same people into a customer’s home, to reduce the contact they have with your team.

Maintaining safe work practices in the property

If possible, maintain a social distance of 2m and limit the amount you move about the house. Its also a good idea if there are multiple people working on site, to make sure the same people work together every day.

Where you are in contact with surfaces or objects within the property, remember to pay extra attention to cleaning (both your hands and surfaces) to reduce risk.

Prepare your safety supplies

You may need to think about bringing some supplies to jobs that weren’t in the back of your van before, so plan ahead. 

Wearing a mask isn’t necessary for working in people’s homes however if you want to wear a face covering you can do this, again, you’ll need to bring it along with you.

You might also want to wear gloves, so make sure you have access to plenty of disposable gloves if you do, as you’ll need to change them each time you enter and leave the property.

Providing your own drink bottle, or mug, will ensure you do not need to be in contact with the customer’s items. This will protect yourself, as well as putting your client at ease.

Clear communication throughout the process

Many homeowners will be understandably nervous about having people work in their properties at the moment, so talking through your safety processes with them in advance will reassure them you’re doing everything you can to keep them safe.

This will show them that health & safety is your top priority and put their mind at rest when you’re working in their home.

For the full information on working in other people’s homes during Coronavirus read the Government guidelines here.

Download our easy to use workplace signage to reassure customers you’re working safely.