Minimum Standard Health & Safety Protocols Checklist
This comprehensive employer checklist establishes essential health and safety protocols to support a safe, phased workplace reopening in alignment with public health guidance. It addresses employee education on sanitation practices, COVID-19 symptom screening, isolation and return-to-work criteria, face covering policies, hand hygiene requirements, and physical distancing standards. Facility measures include systematic cleaning and disinfection of high-contact surfaces, sterilization of shared equipment, distribution of sanitizing supplies, and strategic placement of hygiene reminder signage. Designed for universal applicability across all business sectors, this checklist helps protect the health of employees and customers while reinforcing compliance with applicable occupational safety regulations and public health mandates.
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How to Use This Checklist
- Complete the Health & Safety Protocol Inspection section first: the date conducted, who prepared it, the location, the inspection's real start and end dates, and the finished-at time and signature.
- Work through the employee items against what you can observe and verify: training on cleaning and disinfection, hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette; symptom screening; isolation and return-to-work criteria; the 14-day self-quarantine after close contact with a lab-confirmed case; hand washing on entry; 6-foot separation or the alternative controls where distancing is not feasible; individually packaged meals; and cloth face coverings.
- Then walk the premises: commonly touched surfaces — doorknobs, tables, chairs and restroom fixtures — items that touch customers between each use, availability of hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, soap and water, and hygiene reminder signage at strategic locations.
- Answer each item Yes, No or N/A. What is working stays Yes and is documented. What is not working becomes a corrective action.
- Assign each No a named owner and a date, then re-check it on the next inspection. Periodic re-inspection is what turns the template into a control.
- Keep the completed inspection as your record for employees, customers and any authority that asks how the site was made safe and kept safe.
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What this process is
You are laying down the minimum health and safety protocols that let a phased workplace reopening hold. The checklist is organised into a Health & Safety Protocol Inspection section, Employee Health & Safety Protocols and Facility Health & Sanitation Protocols, and it expects you to answer each item Yes, No or N/A. It is written for universal applicability across all business sectors and covers both halves of the problem: the people you employ and the premises they use.
Teaching the basics
Protocols only work when employees understand them. The checklist begins with comprehensive training for all employees on proper cleaning and disinfection techniques, hand hygiene protocols and respiratory etiquette standards. It then requires that employees wash or sanitize their hands immediately on entering the business premises. Training plus an entry-point habit sets the baseline for everything that follows.
Screening symptoms and isolating
The checklist treats certain signs as grounds for immediate action. Any employee with new or worsening symptoms of possible COVID-19 must be isolated and sent home immediately when they exhibit: - Cough - Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing - Chills - Repeated shaking with chills - Muscle pain - Headache - Sore throat - Loss of taste or smell - Diarrhea - Feeling feverish or a measured temperature greater than or equal to 100.0 degrees Fahrenheit - Known close contact with a person who is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19
Returning to work after illness
An employee with new or worsening signs or symptoms must not return until the applicable criteria are satisfied. For someone diagnosed with COVID-19, the checklist sets a three-step test: 1. At least 3 days (72 hours) have passed since recovery, meaning resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications. 2. Respiratory symptoms such as cough or shortness of breath have improved. 3. At least 7 days have elapsed since symptoms first appeared. An employee with symptoms that could be COVID-19 who has not been evaluated by a medical professional or tested is assumed to have COVID-19 and must satisfy the same three-step criteria. If that employee wishes to return before completing the self-isolation period, they must obtain a medical professional's note clearing them for return based on an alternative diagnosis.
Close contact and quarantine
Known close contact with a person who is lab-confirmed to have COVID-19 keeps an employee out of the workplace until the full 14-day self-quarantine period has been completed from the last date of exposure. The checklist grants an exception for healthcare workers and critical infrastructure workers. That exception applies to the quarantine period, not to the rest of the protocols on this list.
Distancing, face coverings and meals
Employees are expected to maintain a minimum of 6 feet of separation from other individuals at all times. When that distance is not feasible, the checklist does not lower the standard; it shifts the controls. You must rigorously enforce alternative measures: face coverings, hand hygiene, proper cough etiquette, and enhanced cleanliness and sanitation practices. The checklist also strongly recommends that all employees wear cloth face coverings covering both the nose and mouth, and encourages non-medical grade face masks where they are available. Meals for employees get the same treatment. When you provide them, all food must be individually packaged and served to each employee separately.
Cleaning, disinfecting and supplies
The facility side of the checklist is about frequency and access. You regularly and frequently clean and disinfect all commonly touched surfaces throughout the facility, including but not limited to doorknobs, tables, chairs and restroom fixtures. You thoroughly disinfect all items that come into direct contact with customers between each use. You ensure hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, soap and water, or similar disinfectant products are readily available and easily accessible to both employees and customers at multiple locations throughout the premises. And you display clearly visible signage at strategic locations to continuously remind employees and customers of the recommended hygiene practices.
How to run the inspection
1. Record the inspection's administrative details: date conducted, who prepared it, location, and the real start and end dates. 2. Verify the employee protocols: training delivered, symptom screening in place, isolation and return-to-work criteria understood, the 14-day quarantine rule applied, hand washing on entry, 6-foot separation or the alternative controls where distancing is not feasible, individually packaged meals, and face coverings in use. 3. Walk the facility and verify that high-contact surfaces are cleaned and disinfected frequently, that items touching customers are disinfected between each use, that sanitizing supplies are present at multiple accessible locations, and that hygiene signage is visible. 4. Mark each item Yes, No or N/A, assign every No a named owner and a date, and re-check it on your next inspection. > Every 'No' is a corrective action, not a note to self. It becomes an owner, a date and a re-check.
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