Business Continuity & Managing COVID-19

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Practical business continuity actions and questions to help you front foot COVID-19 in your business in the immediate future.

Like most people, I know you're probably getting bombarded with info about COVID-19. However, I believe the time for general workplace talk has passed and you now need to be thinking of things at a broader management and governance level.

Over the next week or two I’ll be sharing some practical information you can use as discussion points with your staff and external business partners. This is relevant regardless of the size of your organisation.

Two questions you need to address right now.

What do you need to do to manage the immediate COVID-19 crisis?
How will you manage ‘business as usual’ if staff are unable to come to work?

Seven actions you need to immediately consider and discuss.

If you don’t have a business continuity plan (BCP), consider the following actions. If you do have a BCP, get it out now and review.

1. Talk with your team:

Consider establishing a COVID-19 workgroup or similar – it could be more formal if you're a larger organisation, or it might be in the form of a tool box / team meeting if you're smaller in size.
If you form a workgroup make sure it represents people right across your business.
Appoint someone to co-ordinate the workgroup.
The focus should be on information and assurance – don’t look only from a business perspective, look from your team’s point of view and address their concerns.
Update next of kin details.

2. Develop a comms plan to get the key information out both internally and externally:

Keep your people informed about what's happening.
Let your customers know you're still open for business – don’t let there be an information void as that just creates uncertainty.

3. How will you operate with reduced staff?

What roles are ‘mission critical’?

4. Consider your immediate customer needs:

Do you need to modify any business behaviour?

5. Contact your support people:

Employment advisor – so you can pass accurate info on to your team and understand what your obligations are.
Bank, accountant and business advisor – to discuss cash and operational implications.
Legal – to look at any contractual obligations.
Insurance – to understand what relevant cover you may have in place.