Coronavirus (Covid-19) Update
Notice from Chris Guy, TÜV SÜD UK CEO
As a company founded on creating a safer and sustainable future, TÜV SÜD is committed to protecting the welfare of our staff, customers, suppliers and all other stakeholders.
Given the Coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak we have set up a UK Response Team, consisting of members of our Senior Management, to plan and co-ordinate our response to this ever-developing situation.
This team is actively monitoring the outbreak and is acting accordingly, in-line with local and national authorities, public health advice and WHO guidelines.
As a global company, we are also consulting with our colleagues in Europe, America and Asia to identify and share best practice.
Some of the specific measures we have undertaken in the UK are listed below:
- We have curtailed all travel, in-line with the most recent UK Government guidelines. At this time, we consider all customer and supplier meetings as non-essential.
- We discourage all non-essential customer and supplier visits to any of our facilities. Clients can still remain in contact through video conferencing and mobile technology.
- We have identified key workers across the business (those who play an essential role in servicing our customers’ needs) and we have initiated a rota system to limit the number of teams on site at any one time, thus ensuring we have resource available to continue operations.
- Staff will self-isolate where necessary, under all circumstances specified in the latest UK Government measures.
- All staff have been instructed to work from home, except those essential to keep our operations running. Those staff still on site are confirming with the latest social distancing guidelines.
- We have increased our hygiene provision, in all our facilities and are assisting all staff to maintain the highest standards of hygiene to limit transmission.
- We are using video conferencing and mobile technology solutions to allow continued, active, participation in internal and external meetings. In addition, we are currently investigating increased use of technology to provide remote monitoring in our labs, which will remove the need to attend in person.
- We have rescheduled our popular workshops and training programmes between now and the end of June 2020, and are currently exploring options for hosting virtual events, so that our customers can benefit in the short-term from access to those programmes.
- Our Response Team is providing daily contact with our staff to ensure we provide the most up-to-date advice and we are monitoring the wellbeing of all our staff and maintaining a real-time status report
- For those visitors that remain concerned, we can make alternative arrangements to allow us to continue to conduct business.
- TÜV SÜD is prioritising all medical device and in-vitro diagnostic device projects that are related to the treatment, testing, and monitoring of the coronavirus outbreak.
Throughout the course of this crisis, TÜV SÜD has put the Health & Safety and welfare of our staff, customers and suppliers first. As we start to reopen our offices and laboratories, we are taking every precaution necessary to ensure we keep all stakeholders safe. This includes:
- Shift work rotas to limit the number of people on site at any one time and to help facilitate the appropriate social distancing measures
- Issuing staff with appropriate PPE, including masks and gloves
- The introduction of more stringent cleaning and personal hygiene requirements in all our facilities to help combat the virus
- Rearranging of workstations to ensure effective social distancing
In addition to this we have restricted face to face meetings. Were these meetings are absolutely necessary, they will be conducted with strict social distancing arrangements. We encourage the continued use of technology to facilitate meetings. We continue to encourage all staff who can work from home to continue to do so.
Please be assured that we will continue to keep you updated as the situation develops. The health and safety of our staff, customers, suppliers and stakeholders is paramount.
