We hope that everyone is staying safe at this difficult time and that everyone is taking the necessary precautions when it comes to dealing with COVID-19, just like we are here at RDC Fine Homes. We want to reassure everyone that we are doing all we can to ensure our staff’s health while also continuing work for our customers.
We invested in technologies and equipment that helps to keep everyone safe and by paying attention to the news across the world we preemptively prepared for the current situation. Here’s a detailed rundown of our actions taken.
The priority of everyone here at RDC Fine Homes is that our staff are safe, healthy and comfortable coming to work. We have installed signage on proper handwashing techniques at all of our sites as well as erecting hand washing stations at sites that normally would not have running water as of yet. The pandemic has put a strain on vital resources such as personal protective equipment (PPE) and sanitizer across the world. We have a small supply of N95 masks that we will keep for an emergency but have not tried to bulk order more to ensure the supply is available for healthcare workers. If a task requires workers to be in closer contact than 2 meters, each RDC site staff has a personally assigned and fit-tested respirator that they can use.
We have supplied all sites with Bleach disinfecting kits (including SDS, measuring equipment and instructions). Bleach: Water solution is effective and more readily available than other products.
We’re very grateful to local companies like Be Clean Naturally and Squamish based distillery Gillespie’s Fine Spirits, who have pivoted their business to create hand sanitizer, this is helping to keep our staff safe as well as the wider public. We have also managed to secure sanitizing wipes from our contacts in Asia.
We have altered our operations to work off a “one trade at a time” model. This reduces the chances of workers coming into contact with people that are not regular co-workers. Once the group of workers is finished their shift, they disinfect surfaces and equipment and vacate the site. This help ensures that all tools and machines are free from the virus.
We have also decided to assign the position of COVID-19 Safety Compliance Officer to our assets manager Luis. Luis helps to ensure that sites are set up with required supplies to disinfect and sanitize sites while also making sure that any deliveries to site are done in a safe and sensible way. Site supervisors are responsible for ensuring their crews and trades are practising safe social distancing and take all necessary precautions.
Our administrative staff now work from home. This is the best precaution possible that we can take. Utilizing Microsoft Teams and Join.me, we work as normal with no drop in productivity. We have daily meetings, via video, in which we check in on the health and well being of our staff. These meetings have now been expanded so that any staff member can join in and stay up to date with the latest news. We feel that good communication is vital at this time.
We are incredibly thankful for the confidence that our clients have in us maintaining safe working conditions and completing projects. This is an extremely difficult time for every business, so your continued support is appreciated now more than ever.
While staff layoffs are never pleasant, we have only had to reduce our workforce by a minimal amount, with new projects allowing us to keep our staff fully employed. We’ve offered our staff flexible working hours to allow for minding children at home and are also considering moving to a 7 day work week to allow for greater flexibility.
We understand that this is a scary time for lots of people and that residents may be wary of construction teams in their neighbourhoods and buildings. We want to assure everyone that we will not risk your health, or our own, at any point.
This communication can be difficult at times, so we’ve taken to our social media channels to provide weekly updates on the steps that we’re taking to maintain a safe environment for everybody – workers, customers and neighbours.
We hope that this has answered any questions that you may have had about how we are reacting to COVID-19 at RDC Fine Homes.
Stay safe and take care!
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We specialize in building custom homes and renovations in the picturesque Sea-to-Sky Corridor, including Whistler, Squamish, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, and Pemberton.
