To reduce the risk of exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace, employers should develop an infectious disease preparedness and response plan that includes screening employees for the symptoms of COVID-19.
During the pandemic, employers may ask employees who report feeling ill at work, or who call in sick, questions about their symptoms to determine if they may have COVID-19. Pursuant to CDC guidance, these symptoms currently include fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion, nausea or vomiting and diarrhea.
Employers also may measure employees’ body temperature before they enter the workplace. Any documentations that an employee had a fever or other symptoms should be treated as confidential medical information.
Testing Currently Available to Employers
| Type of Employee | Type of Testing Permitted |
| Applicants | · Employers may not inquire about symptoms until a conditional offer of employment is made.
· However, you may post signs by the entrance forbidding people experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 and requiring that people applying for work wash their hands, wear masks and practice social distancing. This will help protect those interviewing or interacting with the applicants. |
| Current Employees | · Employers may ask employees if they are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19. This may be done at the beginning of each shift. Employers may require employees, before they enter the workplace, to complete a simple questionnaire that lists each of the symptoms.
· Employers may take the temperatures of employees before the beginning of the work day or work shift (before entering the workplace if practicable) and, ideally, at regular intervals throughout the day, such as after breaks. Any record or log of temperatures must be treated as confidential medical information. |
Advances in technology will, once again, offer a way to facilitate and automate this process. For example, check out this new feature “Clock In Questions” available from the scheduling and time management software company, Deputy. The new feature allows employers to include pre-shift screening questions employees must respond to on their phones before they begin their shift. We will likely see more of these new features and apps as we continue to manage employee health and safety in the workplace.
Email [email protected] with any HR-related concerns.
