On Sunday 10th May, Boris Johnson revealed plans for a phased lifting of lockdown measures and a return to work, business leaders, unions and experts are calling for clarity over expected timelines and significant support from the government to aid businesses’ response.

We’re pleased to say that, following discussions with the Crown Commercial Service, Edays has been selected for inclusion in an exclusive catalogue of companies providing goods and services to the public and third sector during the COVID-19 outbreak. Any business which is looking to track staff illness, manage ‘return to work’ protocols, or have access to in-depth analytics on the impact of staff coming back to the office, can get in touch with us via this government-backed catalogue.

We are currently seeing trials of contact tracing apps to let individuals know if they’ve been in contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus. While that is put into effect, it should be remembered that it’s equally important for businesses to know who amongst their workforce has had that potential contact with an infected person. What’s more, if a staff member does test positive after returning to work, then their manager needs to be able to alert the wider team and put appropriate measures into action.

Here’s how the CCS catalogue describes our offering:

“This supplier offers a web-based, mobile-friendly, sickness management solution, that monitors staff or student absence. Information such as reasons, symptoms and return to work processes are embedded within the system. This provides alerts and triggers enabling an auto alert feature that warns of potential contamination should the user have been in contact with infected persons. The solution provides reporting analytics to monitor trends.”

Up to now, businesses may have had no proper ‘return to work’ processes in place, or an accurate and reportable way of managing staff sickness. While there are demonstrable long-term benefits of a dedicated absence management platform, the pressing need right now is for companies to be able to have a detailed oversight of any sickness amongst staff, as at this time the consequences of unchecked workplace illness are far graver.

We’re proud to be part of the business response against this dreadful virus, and we’re confident that, with the widespread adoption of technology and a commitment to care in the workplace, the UK’s workforce can start to regain a semblance of normality very soon. See Edays in action for yourself.