Six Essential COVID-19 Forms for Security Contractors to Use Right Now
Stay in control and in compliance with adaptable forms.
As a leader of a security company, you’re facing a truly unprecedented crisis. You’re simultaneously tasked with keeping the public safe while also trying to safeguard your employees. Some of your customers are asking for more — increased hours as businesses temporarily shut their doors, visitor screenings, vigilance and monitoring services, while other customers are shutting their operations completely. Plus, the regulatory environment is changing rapidly with evolving health, safety and training requirements for employees.
Navigating this isn’t simple. It requires tools and innovations that are flexible and adaptable and can be easily adopted into your business operations. We’ve compiled a list of essential field-focused forms to help you navigate through this crisis. Examples of these forms are immediately available to customers using our mobile workforce management tool, Lighthouse.
Employee Health and Safety
Your guards are on the front-line of this crisis and in most cases, they’re not afforded the luxury of sheltering at home. Further, if an employee does contract COVID-19, it’s critical for the health of your other officers and the public, as well as the reputation of your business, to identify and report these cases in a timely fashion.
Employee Safety Training and Acknowledgement
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends all workers with potential occupational exposure to COVID-19 be trained about the sources of exposure to the virus, hazards associated with exposure and workplace protocols to prevent or reduce the likelihood of future exposure.
A simple form communicating risks and protocols to employees and capturing acknowledgement and understanding of these protocols can safeguard your guards and mitigate risk.
What to include:
- How to protect officers from exposure
- Recommended Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and instructions for use and disposal
- What to do if close contact with an infected individual or area occurs
- Acknowledgement of understanding
Employee Health Report
If one of your officers falls ill or displays relevant symptoms, you have a duty to your other employees and the public to take risk-mitigating actions. Lack of action poses a significant reputational risk to security firms tasked with maintaining public safety. Forms can help track employee symptoms, incidents of confirmed COVID-19 cases and actions taken to disinfect and prevent further spread.
What to capture:
- Employee details
- Reported symptoms and potential methods of contraction (i.e., travel details or contact with infected individuals)
- Site and personnel impact statement (i.e., areas, equipment and people the employee may have come into contact with)
- Management follow-up and action taken (i.e., employee wellness checks, site and equipment decontamination, personnel notification)
PPE for Law Enforcement
If you operate law enforcement operations with direct physical contact to other individuals and potential exposure to blood, bodily fluids or any other potential infectious materials, PPE and Hazard Communication standards apply. The CDC has developed specific minimum requirements and protocols for law enforcement personnel during the COVID-19 crisis. Smart forms can aid you in meeting the training requirements associated with these guidelines and tracking acknowledgement from your employees.
What to include:
- Minimum PPE recommendations and acknowledgement of receipt
- Instructions for application and use of equipment
- Instructions for disposal of equipment
- Instructions if close contact occurred during apprehension
- Acknowledgement of understanding
Guard Tracking and Reporting
Visitor Screening Questionnaire
While retail stores, restaurants, schools and corporations temporarily shut their doors to the public, essential services and basic security operations remain open, with the security officers monitoring these sites tasked with increasing screening responsibilities. In many cases, all visitors and entrants to the building must be screened for exposure. Forms can help streamline these visitor screening processes, ensuring standard execution by your officers and providing crucial reporting to your customers.
The basics in screening forms:
- Visitor details like name, contact information and purpose of visit
- Temperature
- Exposure risk assessment
- Instructions for permitted entries (i.e. sanitation and safety guidance)
Site/Building Assessments
With increased anxiety, tightening cost constraints and fewer facility managers on the ground from day-to-day, customers are asking their security contractors to be their eyes and ears across more functions, including for cleaning/contamination and management of other third-party contractors. Providing these services helps you differentiate your business, build loyalty, and in some cases, expand revenue streams. Simple building inspection forms can help guide security officers through building inspections and provide an instant reporting service to your end-customers or their third-party contractors like janitorial and maintenance providers.
Potential assessment areas/criteria:
- Building traffic (i.e. people passing through or congregating)
- Safety or maintenance risks (i.e. spills, construction, alarms, etc.)
- Known or likely presence of bodily fluid(s) / contamination risks
- Suspected presence of infected individuals
- Other site-specific variables (i.e. healthcare environments, transport hubs)
Incident Tracking
Whether it’s a vandalism or looting incident, an employee who has fallen ill, a site decontamination effort or maintenance follow-through, identifying issues, taking action and delivering accurate reporting to your customers is especially critical right now. Emotions are high, and timely, transparent reporting builds confidence and drives customer loyalty. And, reporting on incident response helps you better deploy and manage your resources and risk.
What to track and report:
- Nature of the issue – categorize issues for standardized reporting and better analytics
- Description — who, what, where, why and include photos whenever possible
- Action taken
- Resolution
- Time to resolve
Creating standardized mobile forms can provide critical information and training, improve transparency to your customers, drive new revenue streams and safeguard your business against risk by demonstrating and proving good business practices. And, leveraging workforce management technology, like Lighthouse, to get these kinds of forms to the right people at the right time can help you stay in control during times of uncertainty like today.
Read the rest of the posts in our COVID-19 blog series: