Fortifying Your Business Against The Pandemic- Measures That Can Help
The only way to survive through the crisis is to be prepared and ready to adapt. However, this is easier said than done, considering that you don’t have an idea about how long it will last and what the future holds.
Still, there are some actions you can take to fortify your business against the pandemic. While they may not resolve the concerns completely, these measures can still lessen the pandemic’s impact. Here are the ones you need to implement right now.
Review employee locations and travel plans
Right now, the safety of your workforce should be your top priority. Start by establishing their locations and making sure that those vulnerable territories should continue working from home.
If there are any upcoming travel plans for the employees, you will need to review, reschedule or even cancel them. Set up clear policies to address leaves and absence due to sickness. It is also time to have protocols in place for visitors to your establishment once you open up.
Instead of relying on employees to get tested on their own time, you can integrate regular COVID-19 testing into your workplace health and safety plan. This helps detect an active case of the virus among your staff before it has the chance to spread. A medical service such as Drip Hydration can provide onsite corporate rapid COVID testing in Durham and other cities to help protect your staff and customers.
As a part of your crisis plan, you should also be prepared for continuously refreshing and updating these policies and protocols as circumstances evolve.
Get communication right
If you consider the practical aspect of handling the crisis, getting your communication right is perhaps the greater need of the hour.
Since a majority of the workforce is likely to be in the remote mode for some time at least, a proper communication flow is a must to keep the operations smooth. And even as employers make all the efforts to keep their workforce well informed, disinformation and confusion are still happening.
Right now, reassurance is what they need the most. It is the leadership’s responsibility to convey that the business is prepared and the workforce is protected. Maintaining consistency and accuracy in your messaging is vital. Also, telling them that their welfare is paramount for the organization is equally important.
Revisit your business continuity plan
Every well-run organization already has a business continuity plan in place, which it can leverage when a disaster actually strikes.
But no plan is likely to be perfect when theory is actually implemented in reality. Now that the pandemic is real, you need to reassess the plan and make the requisite changes according to the situation. For example, you cannot overlook the value of IT support for every organization right now as employees are working remotely. If you don’t have enough resources in-house to handle the support requirements, the best thing to do is to collaborate with a managed services provider.
Apart from giving you seamless support, they can also help you with infrastructural planning and security.
Pinpoint the potential points of failure
While your business continuity plan is the big picture, you need to look at the smaller details as well.
The most important aspect is to find out the potential points of failure so that you can address issues even before they happen. The points of failure are not only about hardware and software resources but people as well. Are there any individuals or teams on whom critical services or processes depend? Do you have people with the right skills and expertise as backup resources if there is a need to substitute the ones in these roles?
Do you have a proper security plan in place to address the vulnerabilities related to remote operations? If you are sorted on these fronts, you can consider yourself to be lucky but you will need a plan B if there are gaps.
Leverage scenario analysis
With uncertainty rife at present, scenario planning is vital to test your preparedness for the pandemic.
Think of the best- and worst-case scenarios you may come across and assess how well your business is equipped to cope. Consider the long-term impact of the pandemic on aspects like working capital, rentals, operational expenses, and more.
Involve your finance team to bring critical financial sensitivities to light. Developing contingency plans for each of the scenarios will have you ready and confident to deal with just any situation.
No one knows what the coming time will bring for businesses but being ready will surely give you a winning edge. It is all about staying one step ahead of the challenges by adapting quickly to the changing situations.
After all, no virus can beat human resilience and this one will be defeated too if businesses take the right approach.
