KPMG LLP Introduces Dynamic, Risk-Based, Policy And Technical Framework To Help Organizations Safely Reopen Their Workplaces

NEW YORK, May 14, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- KPMG LLP has introduced a dynamic framework to help organizations implement approaches to bring employees back to workplaces. KPMG's framework includes a technology-enabled and data-driven assessment of COVID-19-related impacts within a community, along with an evaluation of the challenges that individuals and their employers may have to navigate as they re-enter the workplace.

The five-step framework offers flexibility based on the nature of the client's business. It assesses risk in local markets, addresses government and regulatory considerations, and provides a technology component to help executives make informed decisions.

"Reopening organizations and bringing employees back on-site presents technical challenges complicated by the fluidity of the situation, public policy responses, and different challenges faced by businesses, their suppliers and their individual employees," said Atif Zaim, Customer and Operations Services Line Leader, KPMG LLP. "KPMG's dynamic risk-based framework helps organizations build and execute an effective return-to-work program."

Laura Newinski, Vice Chair of Operations and Deputy Chair-elect of KPMG LLP, added, "The introduction to the market of these capabilities will give organizations a technology-enabled, risk-based decision framework to leverage as they shape their strategies for returning their employees to offices and make other policy-based decisions. This initiative is important to KPMG as we support our clients, and to the firm itself, as we leverage the tools and framework in our own approach to workplace return."

For more information on KPMG's framework, please click here.

"No two organizations or their risk profiles are alike, and creating a framework to address COVID-19-related impacts requires a high degree of sophisticated analytics and a firm understanding of health policy implications and business processes to help entities resume operations," said Paul Hencoski, Healthcare and Government Solutions Practice Leader, KPMG LLP.

Todd Lohr, Principal, Digital Enablement Leader, KPMG LLP, added, "KPMG's framework provides a passport concept in a digital wallet and leverages mobile device technology, enabling employers to manage permissions for where and how employees will safely reenter the workplace."

KPMG's framework encompasses the following 5-step approach:

1. Risk-based framework:
   KPMG has created a model that serves as a starting point for organizations to develop their own risk-based framework powered by analytic tools that calculate both community threat levels and individual risks – specifically, the risks of contracting and transmitting coronavirus (COVID-19).
2. Workforce and workplace considerations:
   In the short term, it is essential to critically assess and fully understand which roles can be performed remotely and which roles require a physical presence. For those returning to work, organizations need to develop and implement social distancing policies, based on CDC and other federal, state and local public health and safety guidelines. Organizations will also need to consider employment and privacy laws, as well as their own policies, in determining information they request from employees on a voluntary or mandatory basis, as well as whether to allow self-certification vs. third-party verification.
3. Partnering process:
   Once organizations, in consultation with their medical and legal advisors, have settled on a workplace safety approach and a risk framework, they will need to establish a simple and effective process to deliver services and supplies needed to protect employees, such as diagnostic testing, temperature checks and workplace sanitation.
4. Technology enablement/Employee logistics:
   Organizations will also need to enhance technology capabilities to safely bring employees back on-site. Conducting contact tracing of employees, monitoring employees for infection and establishing workplace-related processes, such as establishing entry, movement and exit controls, and enforcing social distancing, are of central importance.
5. Program governance:
   Organizations will also require agile governance that operates with clarity on decision-making protocols, and frequent communication to navigate the return of their workforce in a dynamic, fluid environment, with considerations that include: decision making with C-level engagement, streamlining communication across channels, and monitoring coordination among compliance areas and key functions that engage with the workforce.

About KPMG LLP

KPMG LLP is the independent U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative ("KPMG International"). KPMG International's independent member firms have 219,000 professionals in 147 countries and territories. Learn more at www.kpmg.com/us.

SOURCE KPMG LLP

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