If ever we needed a reminder that in any plan the devil is always in the detail, the government’s supposedly secure border controls gave us a painful reminder. They also should inspire businesses to ensure that their Covid plans, especially at Level 3, are bulletproof rather than mere statements of intent.

The government seems to have missed a number of important elements in security such as regularly testing staff as well as returnees, ensuring staff are not also working in other locations and minimising contact between returnees, especially those who have arrived at different times, and let’s not forget what appears to be lax processes with port and airline staff.

In terms of our own businesses do we have strict protocols for Level 3 of non-contact pickup and delivery, cleaning protocols before and after working on a car and displaying the Covid tracer app, or are we slipping back into the Kiwi mentality of ‘she’ll be right’ and winging it?
It didn’t work for the government and it won’t work for you.

It is not just in the Covid area that it is the detail that usually trips you up, health and safety is another area – it is most definitely not enough in these days to have a health and safety policy you or probably a consultant wrote a few years ago and which has since been stored in a filing cabinet. Whilst having a plan is important, actively managing risks is even more so, if a vehicle hits a staff member who is not using the painted pedestrian safe walkway the onus will be on the manager to prove that they regularly enforced the walkway – just painting it is not enough. The fact that a car hit a person is defacto proof that you are not monitoring it sufficiently for an inspector. Having a policy that says staff shouldn’t do it won’t cut it.

So yes, please sweat the details otherwise they will come back and bite you!

Cathy