Workplaces have changed so much over the past few years in the face of challenges brought on by COVID-19. One of the most significant changes that occurred during the peak of the pandemic was the shift of trends in workplace attendance. During the lockdowns there was an almost complete shift to work from home arrangements for roles that were not absolutely required to be performed on the company premises. Now as we move past the peak periods of the pandemic, this trend has continued with many recent reports showing that continued working from home arrangements are one of the highest demands of the modern worker. In our cities the dynamics of workplace attendance are even more stark, for example Melbourne has a daily workforce attendance at the office of around just 40% and this looks to be something that will continue well into the future.
This sudden change in workplace dynamics has caused many businesses to ‘pivot’ quickly and in many cases successfully. In talking to many businesses however one factor that has been largely overlooked in this new workplace dynamic is how these different arrangements impact on the Health and Safety provisions in the workplace, especially in the workplace emergency management plan. All businesses in Australian must have an emergency plan in place and within this plan it must identify how to effectively respond to an emergency. One of the key elements of responding to an emergency is having sufficient personnel correctly trained and in place.
Prior to the shift to work from home arrangements a business would typically identify a number of workers to fulfill Emergency Warden and First Aid Roles. These workers would attend training and as part of the process of identifying the appropriate personnel, some additional staff would be trained to account for sick leave, annual leave, and staff turnover. The key to this being that the workplace understood that it is not just a matter of how many people are trained overall, it is about how many people are trained and able to respond to an emergency in a workplace during all hours of operation.