The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has published new sector-specific guidance for businesses on ensuring that they keep customers and colleagues at a safe distance from each other.
The full guidance is available here.Key points from the guidance are included below.
General Retail Guidance on Social Distancing
To protect your staff, you should remind colleagues and drivers daily to only come into work if they are well and no one in their household is self-isolating.
To protect staff and customers, you should manage entry into the store, only allowing a limited number of people into your store at any given time.
You should put up signage to ask customers with symptoms not to enter the store, and to remind both staff and customers to always keep 2 metres from other people, wherever possible.
You should regularly encourage staff to wash their hands with soap and water as often as possible and for 20 seconds every time.
If feasible, you should also put up plexiglass barriers at all points of regular interaction to further reduce the risk of infection for all parties involved, cleaning the barriers regularly. You should still advise staff to keep 2 metres apart as much as possible.
To protect your staff, you should remind colleagues daily to only come into work if they are well and no one in their household is self-isolating.
Shops running a pick-up or delivery service
You should ensure that no orders are taken in person on the premises. You should only take orders online or by telephone and communicate this to customers by clear signage in store and online. The advice on social distancing measures applies to everyone and you should take steps to avoid crowding and minimise opportunities for the virus to spread by maintaining a distance of 2 metres between individuals, wherever possible.
Collections
Where customers are collecting items, they should have staggered collection times. When customers whose orders are ready enter, they should enter one at a time to collect orders and make payments, maintaining a safe distance.
Where queuing is taking place, you should use queue management systems to maintain a safe distance.
Deliveries
For retailers or restaurants running a delivery service, you should advise all delivery drivers that no goods or food should be physically handed over to the customer. There should instead be a set drop-off point agreed in advance.
After ringing the doorbell, the driver should maintain a safe distance from the door and oversee the delivery of the goods. The goods should not be left unattended.
You should introduce a way for customers to be able to notify your business that they are in self-isolation or are unwell in advance of the delivery, in which case these guidelines should be very strictly followed. The driver should not enter the customer’s property.
To minimise the risk that a customer does not answer the door, sensible steps such as setting an approximate delivery time and gaining a contact number should be taken.
You should advise drivers to wash their hands using soap and water for 20 seconds as regularly as possible, and drivers should be given hand-sanitiser to be carried at all times and used after each delivery.
