The Betsy Hotel Addresses COVID-19 Mandates

Employee daily screening and contact tracing technology key to reopening.

We recently spoke with our customer, Malvin Ortiz-Aponte, the Director of Human Resources at The Betsy Hotel to discuss the role of ReturnSafe contact tracing and screening in maintaining workplace safety and business continuity in the face of COVID-19 mandates. 

 

 

“I really like the ease of use of the app for our employees, and HR can quickly see across our organization to monitor exposures and hot spots for rapid incident response.  Without the automation for screening and contact tracing, we would have to test everyone if someone became positive and risk having to shut down to abide by the Miami Beach Reopening Orders and Emergency Measures.”

Miami Beach Mandates

Miami Beach has specific Reopening Orders and Emergency Measures for restaurants and hotels to open for business.   You are allowed to open if you implement employee symptom screening, observe social distancing, wear masks, and have every employee and vendor tested monthly.  If someone tests positive, an employee or a vendor, you have to shut down the affected area, or the entire operation, depending upon the location of the exposure and the general vicinity where that person works.  In order to reopen, you would need to do a thorough cleaning and then you have the option to remain closed for 10 days or incur the discomfort and expense of testing everybody again.

We wanted a solution that would help us keep our community safe and maintain continuous operation without having to test everyone all the time.  We evaluated the options and decided that we needed a software solution for employee screening and contact tracing for rapid response and containment.   

Solution Search

Once we decided that we needed daily screening and contact tracing software, I began a Google search to look around at alternatives.  I looked at a solution from the local hotel association, but it was too expensive.  I continued my search via Google and found ReturnSafe. 

Why we chose ReturnSafe screening and contact tracing

The ReturnSafe team was very responsive; I requested a meeting and was able to schedule it immediately.  I really liked the ease of use of the app.  Employees can check-in and perform their daily symptom survey before reporting to work.   Vendors can check in at Security prior to entering the facility. We can set the policies and recommendations to come to work or stay home based upon local, state and federal guidelines.  The entire screening process takes about 5 seconds per day for our employees. 

It has social distancing and the tracking automation that will allow us to comply with the Miami Beach Mandate.  Without it we would have to continue to rely upon employee adherence by good faith.  ReturnSafe allows HR to monitor which employees are completing the screening (and who is not), who is coming in or staying home.   It will allow us to quickly gain insights across our organization and monitor hot spots and exposures for rapid incident response.  And, with ReturnSafe being  ADPmarketplace solution partner,  the decision was an easy one. 

I really like the background of the company, it started from a nonprofit and is now a Public Benefit B Corp.  They started the company not for profit but to help people.  That was very attractive to me.   But, to be honest, I liked that we could get digital screening, contact tracing and testing all from one organization, and the pricing was also a big motivator for buying ReturnSafe. 

Screening Process without ReturnSafe

Without ReturnSafe, employees have to check-in at the security office and get their temperature taken and answer a few health screening questions and are then told to stay at work or return home.   For managers to know who is coming to work and who isn’t, they had to go down to the security office or call them to get the information.  

With the app, employees can do the health screening from home and receive their work status recommendation immediately and managers can see the status of their team from their desks.  With the automation, we don’t have to staff a person at the security desk, we free up managers’ time and employees know their status prior to commuting to work. 

Without these precautionary steps and without the automated contact tracing we would have to test everyone if someone became positive or risk having to shut down to abide by Miami Beach Mandates for Operation.

The ReturnSafe solution is available on the ADP Marketplace. Learn how it works here. See additional customers here.