While Coronavirus might soon be behind us (fingers crossed!), we could soon be in for a bumper flu season.
And if you don’t want your frontline workers to have more sick days this year, it’s a good idea to understand how to protect your employees.
Why might influenza rage in 2022?
Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and public health measures, New Zealanders have enjoyed two relatively flu-free winters. However, this could prove to be a double-edged sword in 2022.
As our borders open again, we will be exposed to any flu virus currently circulating overseas. And with no flu here in recent times, our natural immunity has likely dropped.
In short, we could be in for a doozie of a flu season – and that means even more sick days!
How the flu could hurt your business.
While all eyes are on the current Omicron wave, and absent workers, influenza could be the nasty sting in the tail.
On average, the flu affects 10-20% of the population every year with most employees needing three to five days off to recover. That’s bad enough at the best of times, but on top of all the sick days due to the coronavirus, employers could see this as salt in a very raw wound.
How to deliver a flu-safe payment experience - our top 10 tips
The good news for employers is because most have already invested in public health safety measures to trade during the pandemic, reducing the risk of the flu is as simple as keeping up the good work:
Maintain Good Hygiene Practices
- Remind employees to wash their hands regularly and thoroughly. Provide hand santizer for workers and customers.
- Sanitize your checkout counters regularly.
- Clean your payment terminal often.
- Encourage contactless payments and offer click and collect services where possible.
Protect your Workers
- Provide safety guidance to your team about maintaining hygiene measures.
- Keep up any protective equipment this winter, like plexiglass barriers and protective screens. Support workers and customers who want to continue wearing a face covering or face mask
- Where possible, extend your countertop or have a dedicated payment station with appropriate social distancing measures in place.
- Offer employees a flu vaccination.
- Display your store policies and explain your safety measures.
Use Contactless Payments
- Contactless debit cards and credit cards are the most preferred payment method in New Zealand, and it’s easy to see why.
Contactless transactions are faster, more convenient and definitely healthier for workers and customers .
If you want to help protect your employees and shoppers from the flu, providing contactless payment is a giant step in the right direction. Just the cost of sick days alone could justify accepting contactless payments.
You can even introduce a surcharge for contactless payments and pass on the cost of acceptance to your customers. This approach has saved some small Kiwi businesses thousands in bank fees.
Whatever you choose to do to look after the safety of your employees and your customers, we hope you have a successful winter with healthy profits.
If you want to learn more about how contactless payments could help you business, talk to the Smartpay team today.