Ocean Park Hong Kong has been closed to the public since early this year, but the park has supported staff in many ways, including creating guidelines for health and safety.
Frankie Hau, Risk and Environmental Management Director, of the park talks about creating resources that equip his team with applicable information fast.
How has your facility been impacted by COVID-19?
Our park has been closed to the public since January 26, 2020 and staff were arranged to work at home. We have also implemented no pay leave arrangements for the whole organization since March 1. Nevertheless, essential activities are still going on daily such as cleaning, animal care, and thrill ride maintenance.
Why did Ocean Park Hong Kong decide to create these resources for team members?
It is the legal responsibility and social responsibility of the park to take care of staff health and safety at work, as far as reasonably practicable, by providing health and safety information and ensuring there is an effective health and safety management system in place. We also have various trade and specialties among our staff force and they need corporate direction across them to fight with the outbreak.
How did you decide what topics to address?
We had experience fighting SARS and quite a lot of preventive measures and protocols were already in place. In fact, global health crises never stopped after SARS with the outbreak of avian flu, Ebola, MERS, swine flu, etc. Based on the archive, we reviewed the current situation and conducted risk assessment of our staff activities so that we could prioritize what topics should be addressed. Information from the government’s health department also indicated the approach that the organization should take in developing the preventive measure.
How did you create and distribute these resources?
The resources were created by the experts of the safety department at Ocean Park, with the input of respective internal departments and professionals. We distributed this information through internal meetings, e-mail, the intranet, and notice boards.
What medical or disease experts did you consult and how did you work with them to create these resources?
The Centre of Health Prevention and the Health Department of Hong Kong SAR provided expert advice to us. We also have our own veterinary and environmental laboratory, which could provide medical advice to the workforce.
How have team members responded to these resources?
The team members were eagerly looking for this kind of information, especially under such abnormal circumstances. Most of them considered this information very useful. To certain extent, these resources are corporate directives rather than advisory information.
What other methods are Ocean Park Hong Kong using to keep team members safe and informed?
We have formed a Cross Divisional Task Force with the members from all divisions to oversee the campaign to fight the disease. Managers and supervisors also inspect the park to ensure all preventive and hygienic measures are implemented according to the plan.
We have also developed a corporate emergency response plan on contagious disease to orchestrate parkwide management action for the pandemic.
What advice would you have for other members looking to create resources for their team members?
Members should develop their preventive measures and response plan to the virus as soon as possible if they have not yet. Local authorities are good sources for retrieving useful information to fight the virus as well as other safety institutes and non-government organizations, like IAAPA.
Ocean Park Hong Kong's resources cover a number of relevant topics for staff concerning the prevention of the spread of the coronavirus. Download examples of Ocean Park Hong Kong's information resources to use as a template for staff resources:
