Construction companies around the world use products from USG Corporation to create walls, ceilings, and almost every other part of a building. The company’s network of plants, mines, quarries, and other facilities includes 49 manufacturing sites and 7,000 employees across North America. To help keep their large workforce safe, USG made Wello screening part of daily life.
Justin Dugas, Senior Director of Safety and HR Operations at USG, is responsible for developing the company’s educational health and safety programs. He collaborates with local plant managers like Mike Dee to address the needs of each site and help them implement new programs.
USG responds to the challenges of COVID-19
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, USG formed a cross-functional response team to address the situation. Within a few weeks, the team set up a comprehensive program to help reduce infection risk across the company. Building on their experience with Environment, Health, and Safety (EHS) protocols, as well as industry best practices, they started with face covering requirements for all employees working in close proximity to one another, additional hand sanitizing stations, and enhanced surface cleaning with electrostatic sprayers. To promote social distancing, they created one-way pathways through the plant, removed chairs in conference and lunch rooms, and installed plexiglass barriers in places where workers interact with external people like truck drivers.
In partnership with medical advisors, USG developed a health screening questionnaire that would check for symptoms, such as a dry cough. Employees took the assessment before they came into work each day. As science uncovered new symptoms, like the loss of taste or smell, they added them to the screener. However, simply asking questions was not enough to build a safer workplace.
From hand-held devices to self-service stations
Back in the early 2000s, USG developed temperature screening protocols in response to the H5N1 virus (bird flu), and at that time, hand-held thermometers were provisioned to each facility. Following CDC recommendations regarding COVID-19, the USG team decided to once again focus their efforts on temperature monitoring across their facilities. However, this protocol would require the company to have an employee stationed at every entrypoint to conduct the screening. As many USG facilities operate 24/7, this solution would be costly and onerous to manage. In addition, manual screening would put the person using the device and the person being screened in close contact, and thus increase the risk of exposure for both.
USG began researching automated devices and discovered the welloStationX. Although the costs were higher than a hand-held device, safety director Justin Dugas and team felt that the benefits of reduced administrative burden and lower employee risk was well worth the investment. They also found the sticker verification and email notification features appealing and felt they would work well for the company. “The no-contact, self-service experience of welloStationX is a great solution for daily screening,” says Justin. “It limits the potential for virus exposure and human error that can happen with hand-held devices.”
Within weeks of launching USG’s COVID-19 response program, USG purchased the company’s first welloStationX kiosk for the company’s New Jersey facility. They have since purchased over forty Wello kiosks and installed them across three-quarters of USG’s facilities.
A streamlined screening process for everyone
At each USG office or facility, everyone is screened. Before each shift, employees line up to be scanned, standing on marked spots to maintain social distance. Initially, USG staggered clock-in times for each shift in order to reduce the number of workers in the screening line and further limit potential exposure. However, this has proved unnecessary. “Our Wello kiosks are very quick and efficient,” says Justin. “We haven’t seen any issues or bottlenecks during shift changes.”
Visitors, such as suppliers or business partners, check in at the front desk, receive a badge, and then proceed through Wello screening before entering the facility. Those with a temperature reading above the threshold of 99.5 must exit the building, and an alert is sent to department and plant managers.
Most employees wear their “I’m Wello” stickers on their shirt, but some departments maintain a health check board. People put their sticker next to their name on the board, indicating that a whole team or department has been screened that day.
USG encourages plant managers to periodically observe the kiosks every 2-3 weeks to monitor for compliance and accuracy. They need to make sure that people are standing in the correct position in front of the welloStationX and not wearing a head covering or glasses.
Daily screening builds employee trust and confidence
USG was deemed an essential business and remained open through the pandemic. During the early days in particular, there were so many unknowns, and employees wanted assurance that the company was taking extra steps to provide them a safe work environment.
Temperature screening has really helped build trust with employees, and the welloStationX gives them a visible sign that cements that trust. One of the first Wello kiosks was installed in Port Reading, New Jersey. The site’s plant manager, Mike Dee, says, “Our employees appreciate that the company has invested in equipment to keep them safe. The Wello labels give them peace of mind knowing that all their coworkers have been screened that day.”
At the height of the pandemic, approximately 120 USG employees stayed away from work due to COVID-related concerns. Most chose to stay home because they had been exposed to a symptomatic person or they or a family member were in a high risk group. Very few were out due to personal illness.
The USG team continues to track this data carefully and COVID-19 cases have been relatively few. Across USG’s manufacturing sites, a third have seen no cases at all. Such numbers reinforce employee confidence and highlight the impact of USG’s programs.
Temperature screening helps keep the company operating
On the business side, temperature screening has helped USG maintain their operations through the pandemic. In some states, anyone who contracts the coronavirus is presumed to have been exposed at work, which then opens the door for worker’s compensation claims. Temperature monitoring is a key element of the multifaceted approach that the company uses to prevent workplace exposure. Justin says, “Temperature monitoring is tangible evidence of the company’s efforts to keep our workplaces safe.”
USG is prepared to weather the pandemic, and beyond
Months into the pandemic, Wello screening has become a part of daily life at USG facilities. On the rare occasion when someone doesn’t pass screening, management’s response is less of a fire drill than it was in the beginning. “We’ve settled into a groove and are now in more of a sustaining mode,” says Justin. “We know we can get through this.”
