GL AS S & GL AS S PROCE S S ING
Screening for Covid safety
As businesses become operational again following the pandemic, ensuring staff
and customer safety and complying with Government guidelines is a priority.
Simon Boocock, managing director of CRL Europe, looks at how can glass
screens help ensure premises are Covid secure.
Businesses in the UK are facing a big
challenge as they prepare the workplace
for re-opening following the Coronavirus
pandemic. From customer-facing premises
such as shops and hairdressers, to office buildings
and construction sites, ensuring staff and clients feel
safe enough to return means putting the necessary
social distancing measures in place first.
Lockdown measures may be easing up, but
businesses have a duty of care to do all they can
to prevent another wave and it looks like, at least
for now, that social distancing is here to stay. The
challenge is to get operational as soon as possible,
so that when government guidelines allow,
businesses can re-open and start to salvage things
where they can.
From hand sanitiser stations to clear signage,
there will be work to do to get things ready,
particularly for those businesses that literally
had to shut up shop almost overnight. Their
world will need to look slightly different now and
manufacturers have been working hard to ensure
there are systems and solutions available to help
get things in place quickly, while keeping changes to
a minimum, because familiarity is really what staff
and customers need to see to build that confidence
back up again.
From the very early days of the pandemic,
when only essential shops were allowed to trade,
we saw the first of these necessary changes, with
supermarkets being quick to install plastic or glass
screens at checkouts. This is something that is now
being carried through to other businesses, helping
to maintain that face-to-face contact while guarding
against the spread of the virus.
For many such businesses, being able to retrofit
such protective screens to existing furniture will
be welcome news as it will mean that the layout
of the workplace will not need to be altered too
dramatically. Importantly too, this is a solution that
can be implemented pretty much immediately and
changed as required, as the situation develops and
shifts over time. Using glass also overcomes those
aesthetic challenges, enabling light to flow in the
same way as previously and ensuring that people
are able to easily interact in shops and open-plan
working environments.
Installing glass screens to protect staff and
customers is a quick and simple process with the
new portable partition screen fitting from CRL.
With no requirement to screw the fitting into
furniture, the screen can be fully portable for
flexible working and is simple to set up. Suitable for
6-10mm glass or acrylic, the fitting effectively makes
a desk-top or countertop barrier suitable for use by
a diverse range of industries. The portable screen
fitting is particular useful for helping businesses
meet latest health and safety guidelines in the
workplace.
Available in a black or brushed stainless steel
finish, the portable partition screen fitting has an
anti-slip base, with extra fittings easily added to
increase the width of the barrier as required.
July www.ggpmag.com
/www.ggpmag.com
