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A Rosslyn-based company that keeps those at on the job or at school in contact over security-related issues is pivoting the toward sharing COVID-19 information as localities start to reopen.
LiveSafe is a mobile and web-based platform that enables employees and students to communicate safety concerns with managers and administrators. The company has been around for six years, but with the economy starting to reopen CEO Carolyn Parent said they wanted to shift to using their platform to help companies and employees communicate about plans for reopening and employees’ health status.
“When COVID hit, all our customers wanted to update [their companies] with CDC links,” Parent said. “Now we’re seeing back to work safety as a major issue, from restaurants in Arlington to bigger businesses.”
Parent said companies are asking how they can bring employees back and assure them that they aren’t being put at risk. To that end, Parent said LiveSafe has created a new module called WorkSafe that’s specifically about COVID-19 and workplace safety.
“Businesses can license this and use it for that sole purpose,” Parent said. “WorkSafe gives you the ability for employees to conduct daily health checks back into their companies, with either an ‘I feel okay’ or ‘I don’t.'”
Parent said the new program is being offered free for restaurants with only one location. For chain locations, it’s $50 per month, per location.
“We’re making it free for smaller businesses with one location,” Parent said. “Main Street America does need to come back.”
Parent said WorkSafe can also utilize surveys to allow companies to get feedback on opening from employees, as well as offer links to health protocols.
“The approach to prevention that many companies are doing is that once these employees show up to work, they’re taking temperatures at the door,” Parent said. “But if you are sick, you shouldn’t do that. It should be done before you leave the house [as] part of a morning ritual. We really feel like that can be a helpful way to have an observable, verifiable way of encouraging the right kind of behavior.”
Parent said part of the idea came from LiveSafe’s work with Hungry, a separate Arlington startup whose founders also co-founded LiveSafe.
Parent said Hungry’s challenge was that their spread-out workforce meant they needed a reliable way to check in with a large network of people to see who is healthy and available to work.
For employees, WorkSafe allows them to report (anonymously, if they so choose) health concerns like a lack of personal protective equipment or other issues that could arise after the pandemic.
“There is a whole collective idea that we have a responsibility to each other to communicate these things,” Parent said.
Image via LiveSafe