9 Things Employers Can Do for Employees During the Coronavirus

您是否遵循美国政府对升级冠状病毒情况的回应？如果是这样，你知道政府正在迅速工作，为工人提供小企业救济。

As an employer, you can also take matters into your own hands to keep your workers safe and financially sound.

雇主在冠状病毒期间可以为员工做的9件事

As the leader of your small business, there are a number of things you can do to comfort your employees.

Whether you have to make tough decisions or have the means of helping your workers, here are some things you can do for your employees during this pandemic.

1.给员工礼物

全国范围内，正常的商业已经尖叫着停止，因为一些国家关闭了restaurants and bars to dine-in customers，电影院和学校。

结果，企业必须调整。例如，有些餐馆正在提供交付和开展的选择，代替用餐服务。而且，这意味着员工可能会失去转变并错过尖端收入。

On the flip side, some businesses are having to go into overdrive as product demand increases (e.g., hand sanitizer).

If you’re looking to lift your employees’ spirits during this tough time, you might consider giving them a gift.

一些礼物想法包括：

• Money
• 礼品卡
• Care packages (e.g., food, sanitation supplies, etc.)

If you decide to give your employees a cash-value gift, remember that you must withhold taxes from it. You might decide to do atax gross up对于薪资，为员工提供特定金额（例如，150美元）。

When you gross up for taxes, you increase the employee’s gross wages to account for taxes. That way, the employee’s take-home pay is a neat, even number.

Whatever you are able to give your employees could go a long way.

让他们在家工作

The fast spread of the coronavirus has forced businesses nationwide to shift to a remote work model. This lets employees continue working while also staying isolated.

如果您能够为员工提供这种好处，请执行此操作。冠状病毒以惊人的速度蔓延，导致疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）敦促人们避免与他人和自治区密切接触，如果他们暴露在病毒中。

And on March 16, the White House advised working from home “whenever possible.”

Many businesses are making adjustments and putting plans into motion to enable their employees to work through the coronavirus pandemic from the comfort of their homes. If giving your employees the ability to work remotely is something in your wheelhouse, create a policy and distribute the necessary equipment.

Of course, not all business models are going to be able to switch to company-wide remote work. And if you absolutely cannot let employees work from home, you must…

3. Sanitize your business

为您的员工的缘故（以及您的），您必须每天至少清洁和消毒您的业务 - 至少每天一次。

你可以遵循CDC guidelineson cleaning and disinfecting surfaces during the pandemic, which include best practices such as:

• Wearing disposable gloves during cleaning and immediately washing hands after
• Using detergent or soap and water before disinfecting dirty surfaces

另外，请务必使用批准coronavirus-fighting productswhen disinfecting your small business.

4. Offer paid sick leave

您是否已经提供了员工病假时间？伟大的！对于那些没有的人，您可能会考虑在冠状病毒期间为员工提供付费的时间。并根据新立法，一些雇主在提供病假时可能别无选择。

通过向员工提供付费病假，您可以确保您的员工不必在感染办公室之间进行选择并缺少薪水。

On March 18, the Senate passed theFamilies First Coronavirus Response Act那and President Trump signed the package into law. The bill requires employers to provide 14 days of paid sick leave (at the employee’s regular rate of pay,每位雇员每天收费511美元）对于拥有或正在测试冠状病毒的员工。如果政府官员或医生告诉他们由于冠状病毒的症状或接触的症状，员工也有资格符合条件。

The law also has a provision requiring employers to provide paid leave benefits (at a rate of two-thirds the employee’s regular rate of pay) for up to three months. However, this benefit is limited to $200 per day per employee. Employees who have to stay home with a child whose school or childcare facility is closed because of coronavirus would be eligible.

To help employers cover mandatory paid sick leave costs, there’s a provision that provides an employer tax credit, which is equal to 100% of the sick pay you offer during this time.

有偿休息福利法适用于员工少于500名雇员的所有雇主。劳动部可以豁免业务员工少于50名员工，为工人提供有薪病假。拥有500多名员工的企业被排除在提供强制性支付假期之外。但是，豁免业务仍然可以选择在危机期间提供员工病假。

5. Be flexible

Another gift you can give employees during the coronavirus crisis is being a flexible employer.

Employees ‘round the country are struggling to make ends meet and take care of their children due to the coronavirus. And withhalf of the schools across the U.S. closing downtemporarily, working parents are scrambling to figure out what to do with their children.

帮助你的员工爆发期间,和erstanding about their needs and flexible when offering arrangements. So, what can you do to offer flexibility during this pandemic? To help your employees out, you can work around their schedules or establish a flextime policy, if possible.

Offering flexibility during this trying time not only helps your team out, but also shows your employees that you care about their health and needs.

6. Ask sick workers to stay home

根据一个shrm的研究，9 out of 10 workersadmit to going to work while they’re sick. With the coronavirus spreading like wildfire, more employers are beginning to ask employees to take time off or work from home if they’re sick—regardless of what symptoms they have. Not to mention,the CDC is urgingsick workers to stay home.

To stop the spread of the virus and protect employees company-wide, consider asking sick workers to stay home if they don’t feel well. You can request that ill employees work from home or use PTO if they aren’t feeling well enough to work.

Some individuals can also carry the virus and have no symptoms. Because of this, it may be a good idea to also require employees to work from home or use PTO if their spouse, child, or roommate is sick.

7. Provide unemployment insurance and COBRA information

由于流感大流行,许多小企业都看到ing a decrease in profits. Because business owners are taking a huge hit, many are looking for ways to cut down expenses, like letting employees go.

如果您的业务受到病毒的负面影响，并且您必须削减，请向受影响的员工提供失业保险和COBRA信息。

失业保险为符合条件的工人提供了一定的福利，他们在没有自己的故障的情况下失业。在这种情况下，冠状病毒会导致失业率。另一方面，综合的综合预算和解法案（COBRA）允许员工，涵盖配偶和家属，如果他们因您的业务计划不需要资格而继续群体健康保险。

If your business offers COBRA coverage and needs to let some of your staff go, be sure to inform impacted employees about COBRA details. And, let affected employees know how they can apply for unemployment benefits through the state.

包括有关COBRA（如果适用）和失业保险的信息员工手册。That way, you can guide employees on where to find COBRA- and unemployment-related information.

Keep in mind that your state may provide a special mass-layoff number (e.g., 1234567) for you to use for coronavirus-related layoffs. This can speed up the process so your employees can receive unemployment insurance benefits sooner. Not to mention, it also may prevent your employer account from being affected.

8. Cut out business trips and in-person events

许多州暂时禁止群众聚会，以帮助防止个体传播疾病。而且，这CDC is advising against gatheringsof 50 or more people to slow the spread. Not to mention, the White House is advising against social gatherings of more than 10 people.

To follow suit and keep your employees safe, consider temporarily cutting out in-person events, such as:

• Meetings
• 会议
• 1：1

您可以重新安排他们或利用视频会议工具进行每周讨论和主机会议（例如，Google Hoogouts）。

If your employees travel for work, consider also temporarily “banning” business trips, especially if they’re planning on traveling to a highly-infected area (e.g., Washington or New York state).

9. Make sure employees are well-informed

Last but surely not least, in the hype of the coronavirus, be sure to keep your entire team well-informed about emerging virus information.

作为雇主，您应该每天都在做功课，以了解您的州和政府已建立的哪种相关的冠状病毒相关限制。并且，尝试keep up with the CDC每天访问其网站以进行更新。

为了让员工循环循环以及它如何影响您的工作场所，您可以发送每日电子邮件或备忘录，聊天员工或主机虚拟会议。

Regardless of what method you choose, you must keep your employees posted about COVID-19 details and your workplace’s virus-related policies (e.g., work from home policy).

Patriot Software has been providing constant communication to employees during this pandemic. We’ve put together an article, chock-full of our internalCoronavirus通信和模板，与其他企业主分享。

这并非旨在作为法律建议;有关更多信息，请click here.