Employer Guide: How To Implement COVID-19 Workplace Testing

The government is encouraging employers across all sectors to introduce workplace testing if they have staff who cannot work from home. There is no legal requirement for employers to implement testing, but there are many benefits for employers of doing so. Testing can provide confidence to staff and customers, help to protect the workforce and enable business continuity. There are, however, a number of practical and legal issues for employers to consider in order to implement safe and effective workplace testing, a summary of which we set out below.

What is workplace testing?

Workplace testing relies on rapid lateral flow antigen testing. For this test, a swab is usually taken from the back of the throat and nose. The test result will be visible around 30 minutes later. Lateral flow tests differ from the more sensitive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that are usually conducted at test sites and are then analysed in a laboratory.