Welsh indoors hospitality industry opens some of its doors again

Pubs, cafes and restaurants opened yesterday in Wales for the first time since the pandemic restrictions began in March.

However, there is still some confusion and disagreement over the sectors of the indoor hospitality areas which cannot reopen yet.

The reopening of indoor hospitality in Wales from today has been welcomed, but further clarity is sought on the elements of the industry still unable to reopen.

Executive director for the Wales arm of trade body UKHospitality, David Chapman, said: “The majority of the hospitality sector will now be able to reopen from Monday. That includes indoor play areas and leisure centres as well as pubs and restaurants.

“This is a welcome and really positive step forward for Welsh hospitality businesses which have been hit very hard by this crisis. Our sector plays a big part in local economies all around Wales, so getting the sector back up and running is going to be crucial.”

He added: “We do now need further clarity for those parts of the sector that cannot open, such as function and event centres, and weddings venues. Following a Ministerial meeting on Friday, we will be meeting with Welsh Government on Monday to seek to drive forward a route map for reopening these key areas so businesses can have some sense of security.

“We are also in advanced and positive discussions with Welsh Government, who recognise our arguments around the devastating impact of a loss of the season and restrictive opening, to seek additional targeted rescue funding support for the tourism and hospitality sector in Wales.”

Ben Francis, FSB Wales policy chair, added: “The confirmation that pubs, cafes, restaurants and bars can open indoors from Monday marks a significant step forwards for Wales’ economic recovery and for the businesses concerned.

“We’d now urge people to consider how they can support small firms as reopening continues. Whether that be on the high street, whilst on day trips or on a short break in Wales, or through eating and drinking out.

“The ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme runs throughout August and is a great opportunity for anyone wanting to eat and drink out to support small hospitality businesses as they reopen.”

Here at Time and Attendance UK, our software can help you to plan and monitor different shift patterns. This means that you can create fixed or flexible shift patterns which stagger shift start/end times to reduce crowding. This is in order to minimise the risk of airborne transmission of COVID19 through droplets caused by actions like coughing or sneezing.

If you want to alternate staff members in and out of the workplace, you can use our shift assignment screens to roster staff based on skills and headcounts. The software will advise if you will drop below your preferred level of cover.

Another time of day where crowding can become an issue is break and lunch times. You can use our software to monitor break patterns.

The government also advises that office workplaces should limit “visitor times to a specific time window and restrict access to required visitors only.”

This is easy to control using our visitor monitoring system, where visitors can check in for their pre-arranged appointments. This does require the use of a touchscreen to check in and out, so hand-washing facilities or sanitiser dispensers should be provided.

This is in order to minimise the spread of COVID19 through fomite transmission – which is the touching of any surface or object which has been contaminated by virus droplets. The exact degree of virus survival of various materials is still being studied, but the problem is easily avoided by good hygiene practises or avoiding any contact at all.

If you are following government guidelines to minimise usage of access keypads, visitor-sign-in books and other contact-heavy site security, then we can help here at Time and Attendance Wales.

Our smartcards are contactless, using radio frequency technology, and don’t even need to be removed from their pocket or wallet to be read by the clocking machine.

Our Self Service Module allows employees to clock in and out quickly and reliably using either their mobile phone or their normal internet browser.

These methods still involve some contact between fingers and screen or computer mouse, but only by one individual per day. Therefore, the objects only need cleaned when one person clocks in and out, rather than one entry keypad needing to be cleaned every single time that all the employees use it.

For more information on our workplace management software, the additional SSM module or the smartcard hardware option, please get in touch.

We provide online product demos, as well as online training once products are purchased, and our engineers follow a strict social distancing policy.