ONLA Offers Best Practices for Contractors During Pandemic
The Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association (ONLA) advises landscape irrigation contractors to use careful discretion in determining whether they remain operational during the coronavirus pandemic.
In its COVID-19 update the association stated:
“The ultimate decision and responsibility rests with the business owner, and should be made in the context of strict adherence to health and safety guidance to protect workers and customers.”
Best Practices
Do You Have a
Garden Center?
Does your business include a garden center?
As the weather warms up, people staying at home will be looking for supplies to maintain their lawns and gardens.
Check out the ONLA website for best practices to follow while operating garden centers during the pandemic.
For those contractors who choose to continue operations, the ONLA offers the following best management practices:
- Obtain permission from clients prior to service – preferably, in a documented format such as email or other electronic communication.
- Implement daily communications to all staff in order to educate and reinforce protocols.
- Relax attendance policies to allow any employee to stay home and use PTO.
- Train crew members to respond to questions from the public in a professional manner.
- Enforce cleaning and sanitation protocols for all common spaces, including trucks and equipment.
- Stagger crew start times to minimize personal contact.
- Limit crews to one person per truck, while all other crew members drive directly to the jobsite.
- Divide crew size into smaller, isolatable segments.
- Assign one truck per crew and do not rotate.
- Minimize use of shared equipment and tools.
- Direct crew members to wear gloves as much as possible.
- Direct crew members who must work in close proximity to one another for a short period of time to wear a face mask.
- Be prepared to shut down a project any time, if the customer raises health or safety concerns.
