2020 has been an unprecedented year. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues across the globe, every single person, institution, and company has been impacted.
Small businesses like Graphicast, in particular, have faced steep challenges that would have seemed unimaginable only a year prior. While the essential nature of what Graphicast does has ensured that the company has continued operating throughout the pandemic, it also has necessitated taking serious precautions to ensure that our employees, customers, and society at large, are kept safe.
Here’s why and here’s how.
Small Businesses Face Unique Challenges During a Pandemic
The early months of 2020 seem like a decade ago. So much changed, so quickly, and at the beginning – as scientists and doctors grappled with understanding the new virus – information was coming in too fast to process. This naturally necessitated large-scale shutdowns that U.S. society has never seen in the contemporary era, which impacted every small business across the country, Graphicast included.
Small manufacturers, while often performing essential duties that required them remaining open, have been forced to adapt to the changing norms in order to mitigate COVID-19 exposure and improve health safety procedures.
For any small business, the bottom-line matters. However, when it comes to a pandemic, the temptation that a business might have to only make small and/or easy adjustments – in the name of cost efficiency – is misguided as any slipups could result in a closure, thereby leading to a bigger loss of profits. On the other hand, the procedures that a small business does put in place need to be smart, effective and firmly based on current scientific knowledge.
How Graphicast Maintains Safety, Efficiency, and Well-Being
To mitigate the risk of COVID-19 spreading through our facility, Graphicast has adopted many contamination prevention safety protocols, all of which could prove useful to other small manufacturers in the months ahead.
Due to the way Graphicast operates, following the recommended social distancing protocol was not a complex adjustment, and from there, the key has been taking a proactive approach to reduce the risks. That also means understanding how viruses transmit, and then taking precautions to avoid any potential spread. This process must start with understanding that a virus like COVID-19 can spread before major symptoms appear. To keep a close eye on this, Graphicast maintains well-practiced temperature monitoring, and operates a pooled saliva test, including all employees, every 10 days: these test samples are sent to an overnight lab for quick results, so if someone were to become infected, the company could act fast to protect other employees.
Beyond social distancing, perhaps the biggest factor in mitigating the risks, naturally, is proper sanitation. To accomplish this, Graphicast uses a cordless electrostatic sprayer, which gives users the ability to spray for hours without dragging a cord – itself an infection risk – and provides even coverage to all conductive services, wasting less liquid while also saving the time and labor of other methods. This is done to the facility every morning, ensuring that employees begin the day with a clean, sanitized workspace.
Smart, efficient, and safe: Those are the key practices, with no corners cut. By taking such precautions, Graphicast has done our part to flatten the curve, prevent the spread of COVID19, and safeguard our employees, their families, and our customers.