CPA_Practice_Advisor_June_2020 - 27

FEATURE

7 STEPS
By Bill Sheridan

to Safely Reopening Your Firm's
Office During a Pandemic

RETURNING TO WORK during a pandemic goes way
beyond telling the world, "We're open."
This is complicated stuff. There
are federal, state, and local regulations to consider. The health and
well-being of your employees is
your top concern, obviously, but
you also have to consider the health
of your clients, your team's access
to protective equipment, and your
own legal liabilities.
There's no shortage of guidance
out there. Every organization is
scrambling to provide its constituents with the best available advice.
So where do accounting and finance
professionals start?
The Maryland Association of
CPAs has compiled official back-towork guidance from federal, state
and local sources and curated it
into a collection of best practices
for organizations that want to
reopen their businesses in a safe
and socially responsible manner.
Titled "Reopening the Profession: An Accounting and Finance
Professional's Guide to Safe Work
in a COVID-19 World," the document gathers recommendations
from health care, government and
business experts and presents it as
the generally accepted best advice
available for how business leaders
can safely return to work.
"Reopening our businesses in
this environment goes way beyond
unlocking the door and turning on
the lights. It's a complex process
that involves considerations in a
number of areas, including health
care, human resources, business
strategy, and risk management,"
said MACPA President and CEO Tom
Hood, CPA. "A number of agencies

have released terrific guidance
on how to protect our teams and
organizations as we return to work.
This document is an authoritative
collection of what we believe is the
best advice available."
Much of that advice stems from
work done by the state of Maryland.
In particular, Gov. Larry Hogan's
"Roadmap to Recovery" is a set of
recommendations based on guidance from the White House, the
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, the National Governors
Association, the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health,
and the American Enterprise
Institute.
The MACPA document also
emphasizes the work done by the
Professional and Financial Services
Recovery Advisory Group, a stateappointed group that has released
extensive guidance for businesses
in the professional and financial
services industry as they begin the
arduous task of reopening workplaces amid the worst pandemic
in more than a century.
That group, whose membership
included Hood and fellow Maryland
CPA Ed Brake, based its work on a
belief that the goals of every business should be to:
* protect the health and well-being
of employees,
* maintain business resilience, and
* support broader public health and
community objectives.
The advisory group agreed with
seven critical recommendations
that all businesses should follow
as they reopen their workplaces

for businesses. Much of the guidance in the MACPA document
includes variations of these
recommendations.
Maintain physical distancing
w it h i n t he work place by
i mple m e nt i ng bu s i ne s s
practices, managing foot traffic
within workplaces, and reconfiguring
office interiors. Wherever possible,
employees should work or access the
business from home to minimize the
numbers of workers that need to be
physically present.
Require face coverings
i n publ ic spaces of
multi-tenant buildings,
which would include the
main lobby and hallways, elevators
and elevator lobbies, and restrooms
accessible to all tenants and any
meeting space available to multiple
tenants. Businesses may choose,
as their discretion, to extend such
requirements to common spaces
accessed by multiple employees, but
not by the public in general, such
as meeting rooms, hallways and
kitchens.
Minimize the need to
touch things as much as
possible. When unable
to provide touchless
functionality, maintain operational
procedures for frequent cleaning.

JUNE 2020 ■

Require 14-day selfquar a nt i ne for a ny
employees with COVID19 sy mptoms or a
positive COVID-19 test, or anyone who
has had prolonged recent exposure to
someone with COVID-19 symptoms
or a positive COVID-19 test.
Prov ide appropr iate
signage or other communication methods to
inform all persons using
the facility regarding Nos. 1-4 above.
P r o v i d e s u f f ic i e nt
cleaning supplies and
handwashing facilities.
Regarding work travel:
Employers and employees should check the
" Tr av e l e r 's H e a lt h
Notices" from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention for the latest
guidance and recommendations for
each country that they may be visiting.
"Reopening the Profession: An
Accounting and Finance Professional's Guide to Safe Work in a
COVID-19 World" is available for
free at bit.ly/CPABacktoWork. ■
Bill Sheridan, CAE, is chief
communications officer for
the Maryland Association
of CPAs and the Business
Learning Institute.

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

27
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