KPMG has launched a new framework to help organizations implement approaches to bring employees back to workplaces, the company reported on Thursday.
"Reopening organizations and bringing employees back on-site presents technical challenges complicated by the fluidity of the situation, public policy responses, and different challenges faced by businesses, their suppliers and their individual employees," said Atif Zaim, customer and operations services line leader, KPMG LLP. "KPMG's dynamic risk-based framework helps organizations build and execute an effective return-to-work program."
KPMG's framework will feature a technology-enabled and data-driven assessment of COVID-19-related impacts within a community and an evaluation of the challenges that individuals and their employers may have to navigate as they re-enter the workplace.
The company’s five-step framework will offer flexibility based on the nature of the client's business. It assesses risk in local markets, addresses government and regulatory considerations, and provides a technology component to help executives make informed decisions.
KPMG's framework will provide a passport concept in a digital wallet and it will leverage mobile device technology, enabling employers to manage permissions for where and how employees will safely reenter the workplace.
"The introduction to the market of these capabilities will give organizations a technology-enabled, risk-based decision framework to leverage as they shape their strategies for returning their employees to offices and make other policy-based decisions,” Laura Newinski, Vice Chair of Operations and Deputy Chair-elect of KPMG LLP.
KPMG's five step framework will include risk-based framework, workforce and workplace considerations, partnering process, technology enablement/Employee logistics and program governance.
KPMG has created a model that will serve as a starting point for organizations to develop their own risk-based framework powered by analytic tools that calculate both community threat levels and individual risks. The framework will specifically focus on the risks of contracting and transmitting COVID-19.
Under considerations, for businesses returning to work, KPMG has noted that organizations need to develop and implement social distancing policies, based on CDC and other federal, state and local public health and safety guidelines.
KPMG noted that once an organization has developed a workplace safety approach and a risk framework, they will need to establish a simple and effective process to deliver services and supplies needed to protect employees, including diagnostic testing, temperature checks and workplace sanitation.
Organizations will also need to enhance technology capabilities to safely bring employees back on-site. These organizations must run contact tracing of employees, monitor employees for infection and establish workplace-related processes.
Businesses that plan to reopen will also require agile governance that will utilize decision-making protocols and have frequent communication to navigate the return of their workforce in a fluid environment.
"No two organizations or their risk profiles are alike, and creating a framework to address COVID-19-related impacts requires a high degree of sophisticated analytics and a firm understanding of health policy implications and business processes to help entities resume operations," said Paul Hencoski, Healthcare and Government Solutions Practice Leader, KPMG LLP.
About KPMG
KPMG LLP is the independent U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"). KPMG International's independent member firms have 219,000 professionals in 147 countries and territories.
