Delivering Happiness in this time of Uncertainty

From food to clothing to electronics, it has literally never been easier to shop from the comfort of your own home. You can order almost anything online and even get it delivered to your house the same day. 

You can go online and order everything you’d need to become the next best crochet artist or maybe an exercise bike.. that will eventually become a clothing rack.

Picture this: you’re working from home as you should be during this lockdown. You’ve got up and got dressed into normal clothing (as you should) and walked into your kitchen to prepare for the day. You open your cabinets and oh no.. there’s almost no coffee left what will you do for the rest of the week!? Locked down and no coffee? Not on my watch, you cry. You get your phone out, almost dropping it in the process, and go to your supermarket app and quickly buy coffee (and other essentials like, you know, food).  In a few days, it will be delivered to your door and you didn’t have to leave the house. You stayed home and kept safe.  

As expected, what may seem like magic, is usually achieved through a lot of hard work.  Although it may seem like magic, we don’t think about the process behind getting those items to us.  Packages just appear magically when the delivery driver drops them off. 

What we fail to realise, is that there is a whole team of people behind the scenes that we never see; from those who keep the websites running, supply chain to ensure products are in stock, customer care teams, fulfilment, order pickers, packers, shippers, and delivery drivers.  There is a large team of people preparing your orders and doing their best to get your orders to you as quickly as possible.  And let’s not forget those whole handle returns!

During these unprecedented times, logistics workers are more necessary than ever, helping to deliver food and essentials such as emergency hair dye and razors for that homemade haircut you thought you would nail, (c’mon how many of you have cut your partners hair already!) directly to your door.  These behind-the-scenes heroes are helping you avoid public spaces and help vulnerable people such as those with existing health conditions and the elderly when they have nobody else to rely on.

Logistics workers are putting themselves on the frontline to keep our countries moving. It is also important to consider their wellbeing during these times as some may be working longer hours as more and more people shop online.

Keeping these workers safe during the pandemic is of utmost importance.  More than 50% of workers are in these kinds of essential sectors who do not have the luxury of working from home.  These frontline workers continue to risk exposure daily to ensure the continuation of processes critical to our society. 

Workplace safety has now become more important than ever as businesses struggle to keep up with the increased demand while facing absenteeism in the existing workforce, new and temporary workers who are often untrained, and extended hours, double shifts or overtime.  While these are necessary measures, they can often lead to higher risk and more workplace accidents due to fatigue or being unaware of safety protocols. 

• Make sure you keep a 2-metre distance from people at all times 
• Stagger breaks between employees to ensure no more than 5 people are in the cafeteria at one time and be sure to enforce the 2-metre distance in the cafeteria too
• Place hand sanitizer stations in prominent places around your workplace
• Workstations and other high-touch areas should be sanitised several times a day
• Provide all employees with appropriate PPE which includes gloves and face masks
• Ensure paper tissues are available 
• Anyone who feels sick must stay home
• Promote regular handwashing with signage 
• Make your policies clear with signage or safety message matting 
• Mark out safe distance lines, see our Tough Mark floor marking strips