Although we have taken steps to have 80% of our office workforce working from home during the pandemic period, in the print industry, working from home is not an option for all, most notably site installation and warehouse staff. Conscious of the need for strict COVID prevention procedures to safeguard the health of both our staff and clients while ensuring the timely delivery of client needs, we have drilled down deep into the latest precautionary measures and created a comprehensive operations procedure to prevent infection. These have ensured that our essential workers can continue to operate and fulfil installation requirements fully focused on client requirements within ELAN’s overarching commitment to product excellence and time sensitive delivery.

This procedure provides for a check list to ensure all the necessary PPE our onsite workers need is continuously available so they can progress installation. These include face masks, disposable hand gloves, hand wash soap and sanitizer, tissues, and the obligatory face shield. Before they even arrive on site, clients can be assured that staff have had their temperatures taken and that supervisors fully monitor and record outcomes. This is repeated when staff return from on-site installations.

Clients can also be reassured that the staff who are working on their installations are fully briefed on more in-depth measures they should take to protect all around them. All staff have been taken through guidance advice sessions leaving us confident of their safety awareness and their ability to pass this confidence on to clients. Staff sanitize the equipment they use prior to arrival on-site, ensure they alone use the equipment and that sanitization is repeated in between tasks.

Our staff have all been fully briefed to stay alert for any symptoms and if they do suspect they have any, they are asked to seek immediate medical help by firstly contacting their supervisors or installation site safety personnel. Or if they suspect flu like symptoms when they are at home, they are asked to remain there and to contact the public health hotline for testing.

Our safety protocols extend well beyond our installation sites, indeed cover all our operations. We have ensured that clients have the convenience to check our services from our website www.elanprint.qa and request quotations directly from there. We are also ready to help clients reassess their printing needs recommending various print mediums which will help protect collateral in times of deep cleaning requirements. There are numerous, cost-effective, and durable solutions to assist all to clean down everything from signage, to menus, to wall charts or branding without damaging the visual impact.

For the sake of all concerned, our protocols also include politely excluding non-essential people from our place of work. Authorised personnel and sanctioned third party visitors must go through a screening process, and are asked to show us their green code rating on the EHTERAZ mobile risk detection app which was developed by Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Crisis Management to help speed up the process of contact tracing to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Once inside our facility both staff and visitors are asked to abide by social distancing policies, including, where possible keeping at least two metres away from others, and making sure they do not shake hands. Hand sanitizers and tissues are also freely available throughout our site.

Overall, our normal work practices during this time involve avoiding face-to-face meetings and using technology for communications whenever possible. To aid these practices we have made technology solutions extensively available to all including phone, Skype for business and the Microsoft Teams communications and collaboration platform.

Should for any reason a face-to-face meeting be necessary, we insist on participants keeping the 2-metre guide rule apart from each other.

We anticipate these measures will keep our staff and clients totally safe and our business operating with on-time installation continuance during these challenging times. By following guidelines, we will together emerge stronger from this unique period and be ready to play our role in a full business rebound.