Since the coronavirus hit our nation early this year, businesses and families have been constantly grappling with a tidal wave of information. As a family, you may wonder how to best keep your loved ones safe, both at home and during times when you venture out. You may also be concerned about keeping your job and providing for your family through this pandemic.
Business owners, too, have these issues. On top of these worries at home, they also have concerns about following the protocols put forth by the local, state, and national government leadership. These new rules are constantly shifting and changing according to the prevalence of the virus in an area and how much our area is doing in response to those changing numbers.
In response to this ever-evolving dimension of workplace life, we would like to explore a few resources that may be helpful to business managers, leaders, and owners. Here are just a few places where you can search for the current reopening phase, the current coronavirus statistics in our state or region, and the ways that you can help your employees adjust to this new form of normal as they balance work, home, and a pandemic… all at once.
Reopening Requirements
As Massachusetts moves into a new phase of the reopening every few weeks and months, businesses have more opportunities to bring workers back to the office and make face-to-face contact with consumers a reality. In order to understand the reopening phases, here is a great resource from Mintz that outlines what each phase entails as well as requirements for businesses at each step of the way. The wording is clear and detailed enough to provide an “at-a-glance” look at each phase for our state.
Reopening Guidance and Questions
It’s reasonable to think that each business is unique in its own way. Questions are bound to arise when reopening and how each sector of industry should handle common situations such as checkout registers, how many customers can be in a store at one time, the social distancing guidelines, and literally hundreds of questions that businesses may have.
Mass.gov is a great resource to find compliance and guidelines for specific businesses in our state. Included on this page are resources for child care, schools, higher education, and camps.
Federal Regulations
For federal requirements, there are several places to check for resources. USA.gov not only lists the federal government’s response to COVID-19, but also has a list of sites you can access to meet compliance requirements including: health and safety, immigration and travel, taxes, financial assistance, and scams or frauds related to coronavirus.
For more resources on staying up-to-date on government policies during this pandemic, check out our resources pages at North Shore Career Center and MassHire North Shore.