Managing the impact of COVID-19 cases at your business

Please note: this page will be updated as new information comes to hand, so please check back regularly.

• Dealing with COVID-19
• Reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections at your business
• Have a plan for COVID-19 cases affecting your business
• Follow public health advice if you, your workers or someone else who visits your premises has COVID-19
• Worker exemptions from isolation requirements
• Look after yourself and your mental health

As a business owner, there are steps you can take to protect your staff and customers against COVID-19. A clear plan can potentially help lessen the impact as you focus on ultimately operating in a safe way.

As part of New Zealand's COVID-19 response

• anyone with symptoms must get a test
• confirmed cases need to isolate for 7 days after their symptoms first occurred or they received their positive test result, whichever ends sooner
• household contacts need to isolate at least until the confirmed case in their household has completed their 7 days of isolation as above
• all household contacts must test on day 3 and day 7 or as soon as possible if they develop any symptoms
• if a household contact tests positive, they become a confirmed case themselves and must isolate for 7 days as above 
• a person who was previously a confirmed case who has finished their 7 days isolation is not considered a household contact for a period of 90 days after their first day of isolation even if someone else in their household becomes a confirmed case
• other close contacts who are not household contacts do not need to isolate, but should monitor for symptoms.

If a household contact is vaccinated and asymptomatic, they may be able to continue to work if they:

• work in a 'bubble of one', if they are not customer facing and follow strict health protocols
  
  'Bubble of one' for workers who are contacts required to isolate'

• are a critical worker who provides a health service, managed isolation or quarantine service, emergency service or works for a critical service provider and follow strict health protocols (as per the Close Contact Exemption Scheme).
  
  Close Contact Exemption Scheme

Further details can be found here:

Testing and returning to work

We all want to reduce the risk of contracting COVID-19, and there are simple steps business owners can take to limit the spread of the virus amongst workers, customers and other visitors.

• Understand the COVID-19 Protection Framework and how it affects your business. Follow all the rules and specific guidance, including any indoor capacity limits at Red, physical distancing, and wearing face masks indoors.

COVID-19 Protection Framework overview

• Support your employees to get vaccinated, including booster shots. Employment New Zealand has guidance on talking to employees about vaccination. Consider using the vaccination assessment tool to determine whether work at your business should be done by vaccinated people. Some sectors are covered by vaccination mandates.

• Understand the restrictions on your employees if they have symptoms, are confirmed cases, or are a household contact
  
  

  COVID-19 vaccination and employment — Employment New Zealand

  Vaccination assessment tool

  Vaccination mandates(external link) — covid19.govt.nz

• Encourage healthy habits in your workplace – including reviewing and updating hygiene, cleaning and ventilation practices, and ensure they are being followed. Advice around good ventilation practices in relation to COVID-19 can be found on the Ministry of Health’s website.
  
  

  Keep up healthy habits(external link) — covid19.govt.nz

  COVID-19: Ventilation(external link) — Ministry of Health

• Ensure staff stay at home if they are sick. Ask them to call the Healthline number 0800 358 5453 for advice and to arrange to get tested. The COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment provides financial support for businesses whose staff can’t work from home while waiting for a test result.
  
  

  COVID-19 financial support

• Make sure you and other leaders in your businesses set a good example, by following good hygiene practices and staying at home when you’re sick too.
• All businesses have an obligation to protect workers and others impacted by their work from COVID-19 and other risks to their health and safety. WorkSafe has guidance on how to meet these obligations.
  
  

  COVID-19: Operating safely – what you need to think about(external link) —  WorkSafe

It is important business owners have a plan for COVID-19 impacting your premises and other businesses you deal with, or affecting your workers, such as parents needing to stay home with isolating children.

Part of that plan is knowing what your responsibilities as a business owner are to your staff and the community and, as always, it’s important to keep up to date with the latest information.

Plan ahead for ways to continue to operate if workers have to self-isolate or get sick

• Have staff work from home where appropriate – and continue to test systems so working from home is as seamless as possible.
• Consider dual rosters – eg blue team, red team – to limit the number of staff interacting.
• Put together a continuity and contingency plan. These plans won’t just help with COVID-19 – they can support your business during other interruptions, like natural disasters or utility disruptions, such as a water mains failure or a power cut.
  
  

  Continuity and contingency planning

• Involve your workers in discussions on how roles, responsibilities and ways of working might need to change, drawing on your collective experiences. Employers and employees, and their representatives, must work together, in good faith, to manage the implications of COVID-19 on working arrangements.
  
  

  Modifying employment agreements during COVID-19(external link) — Employment New Zealand

• Think about ways you can operate with fewer staff if need be – such as reduced hours, a reduced service (such as moving to takeaways or click and collect-style sales), or prioritising what work is most important, and what can be delayed.
• You might want to engage early with temporary workforce providers in case you need to call on them for additional workers.
• Record important processes and knowledge, so other workers can pick tasks up if someone is unable to work. Consider who has responsibility or authorisation for various aspects of your business, such as banking authorities, or authorisation to speak to suppliers or utilities. If that work is unable to occur, what are the implications for your business and its ability to continue to operate as usual? Do you need to assign (and train) back-up staff with the appropriate authority to take over those tasks? The Business Continuity Institute has useful resources to help you prepare.
  
  

  COVID-19 resources(external link) — The Business Continuity Institute

• Check out your industry body to see if they have developed sector-specific guidance or services.
• Review your finances and understand your cashflow. Engage credit providers, such as your bank, early to discuss ways you might manage cashflow if an outbreak affects your business.
• Understand your responsibilities as an employer, including employment law and health and safety law.
  
  

  COVID-19 and the workplace(external link) — Employment New Zealand

  COVID-19: Managing health and safety(external link) — WorkSafe

• Ensure that your workforce knows what the requirements are for testing and isolation.

• Consider if your business will access the Bubble of One or Close Contact Exemption Schemes which allow certain workers who are household contacts of a COVID-19 case to return to work in limited circumstances, if they follow specific health protocols.
  
  More information about the Bubble of One and Close Contact Exemption Schemes

Consider other businesses you deal with, and how they might be affected by COVID-19 cases

If your business relies on other businesses’ products or services, consider talking to them about their continuity and contingency plans. How they plan to respond could affect your own plans.

For example, you could ask your suppliers:

• How do they plan to deal with staff absences?
• How will they maintain the supply of services or goods to you if they are under-staffed?
• Should you allow longer lead times for orders, or order more frequently?
• If you have a particular staff member from a supplier who your business relies on heavily, who is the back-up point of contact?
• If your supplier has limited capacity, will you be one of the customers who they continue to supply?

Think about who you rely on to operate your business and consider what steps you can take with that supplier to maintain necessary services or goods, should they be impacted by COVID-19.

If you provide services or products to other businesses, you might want to contact your customers and share your plans. Understanding their plans could also help you anticipate changes in demand, timeframes or how you could tailor the ways you provide your services and products to match any new ways that they work.

Have a plan for communicating with workers and customers

• Think about how you will communicate with staff – are staff contact details up to date?
• Make sure they know where to find the most up to date health advice, and consider ways to support them, such as a regular phone call and offers of assistance. Do any of your staff have particular needs eg, health conditions or dependents that will require different support?
  
  

  If you test positive for COVID-19(external link) — covid19.govt.nz

• How are you going to inform customers, providers or clients about any contact with a COVID-19 case they might need to be aware of, or if you have to change your operations due to the availability of workers? Up to date databases are important and social media or email newsletters may also be useful tools.
• In all cases, consider how you protect people’s privacy. Names and medical information must not be shared.

Resources

• An introduction to business continuity(external link) — The Business Continuity Institute
• Find a Civil Defence guide to creating a business continuity plan and download a template at Wellington Regional Emergency Management 
  
  WREMO: Business Continuity Plan(external link) — Wellington Regional Emergency Management

We know COVID-19, and its impact, can change rapidly. As a business owner, it is important you are up to date with the latest advice from the Ministry of Health.

Self-isolation requirements for people with COVID-19 and their household contacts

Read more about testing and isolation requirements for businesses

The Ministry of Health will have the latest advice on self-isolation requirements.

Advice for people with COVID-19(external link) — Ministry of Health

Types of contacts(external link) — Ministry of Health

Financial support

The COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment is available for businesses, including self-employed people, to help pay their employees who cannot work from home while they wait for a COVID-19 test result.

The COVID-19 Leave Support Scheme is available to employers, including self-employed people, to help pay their employees who have been advised to self-isolate because of COVID-19 and can’t work at home during that period.

COVID-19 financial support for employers(external link) — Work and Income

Cases in workplaces

The Ministry of Health has guidance for what to do if your workplace has a case of COVID-19, including information on contract tracing and communicating with employees and customers.

Guidance for workplaces that have a case of COVID-19(external link) — Ministry of Health

Cleaning and disinfecting

You’ll find advice on cleaning and disinfecting during COVID-19 on the Ministry of Health’s website.

COVID-19: General cleaning and disinfection advice(external link) — Ministry of Health

There are two initiatives that have been introduced to help businesses manage absenteeism and continue operating as COVID-19 spreads:

• Bubble of one: non-customer facing workers who are contacts required to isolate can return to work in a bubble, following strict health protocols (available to any business, does not require registration or rapid antigen testing)
• The Close Contact Exemption Scheme: registered critical services can keep critical workers on-site who would otherwise have to isolate as a contact of a COVID-19 case in certain circumstances. 

More information about these initiatives

It can be stressful managing the impacts of COVID-19 on your business. You may need some advice, or simply someone to talk to – help is available.

Mental health and wellbeing support