Can Stickers Signal That Businesses Know About COVID-19 Safety?
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce is promoting a safety sticker businesses get once they complete COVID-19 training for their employees.
Chris Pizzello / Associated Press
How will people know if the business they’re entering is following COVID-19 safety guidelines?
OSHA, the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Agency, does not have the manpower to do check-ups and has no regulations on the matter, only guidelines. The Georgia Chamber of Commerce wants to help with its big brand. It’s promoting a safety sticker businesses get once they complete COVID-19 training for their employees.
“If I as a customer see the certification, then that hopefully gives me a sense that I’m comfortable going into this establishment, and they have standards,” said Morgan Law, the Chief Experience Officer for the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
The standards come from Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive order and CDC guidelines. Unified Standards, a production company in Albany, Georgia, turned them into training videos for 17 industries in both English and Spanish.
“People don’t read anymore. You wouldn’t read a long, 50-page executive order for all sectors,” said Gill Moura, who works for a restaurant group in Albany and helped Unified Standards with the project.
Just like other corporate training videos, there’s a test employees take to make sure they’ve seen all the material. It costs about $35 per employee, but the company says federal COVID-19 relief funding can pay for it in some cases.
Once complete, the business will have earned their sticker with the Chamber of Commerce and Unified Standards Logo to display.
But there isn’t much enforcement of these safety guidelines from government officials, because they’re not regulations or laws said Julie Smith with custom HR Solutions, who advises businesses on COVID-19 safety.
“I think the employers have to do everything they can to ensure that the workplace is safe,” she said. “That said, there is no way they can guarantee that it’s safe.”
But Smith said seeing a safety sticker in a business, does signal that the risk of getting COVID-19 is probably lower.
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