As government advice strengthens to reduce the peak of COVID-19 cases that need NHS intervention and thus avoid those services being swamped, we only have to look at Italy and France to see what further measures may be implemented in the next few weeks.
Businesses are already being impacted by the pandemic, and it will get worse. Here are three things that you should do NOW to better ensure that you weather the storm…
Review, update and (re)test business continuity plans
Review, update and (re)test your business continuity plans – this is the same as executing fire drills so, for example, if you’re a local newspaper then try to create an edition without anyone being in the office (to the point where it is printed, obviously).
Ensure that the right IT systems are fully operational and accessible - email, order processing, billing etc. Test that the tools for remote staff will scale for the situation when everyone is remote, particularly network traffic through the VPN to make sure that staff can connect to their business applications. Additional data centre and network capacity may need to be secured.
Establish a single source of the truth for your employees
If you’ve listened to the television news, read some newspapers or looked on the internet over the last few weeks, then you’ll have seen some conflicting communication of the messages coming from government. This week, Boris Johnson (flanked by his science and medical advisors) has introduced daily updates to the public (and media) directly. He has established a single source of the truth; do the same for your employees, using a site and/or hotline.
Summarise external content/advice from government and the NHS, identify support services for staff (internal and external) and be clear about how company policies will be applied. Some staff will not be used to working from home and may need to be reminded of the importance of setting up a quiet place to work, of taking regular breaks, and not overworking themselves (such as working the hours they would normally commute).
Provide collaboration tools
Where businesses have not yet implemented remote working capabilities, there are some short-term solutions that can be used on your company’s and staffs’ home computers to significantly improve collaboration:
Instant messaging (Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business)
File sharing (Google Drive, Dropbox)
Videoconferencing/meeting software (Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, Cisco WebEx). You can invite customers and suppliers as ‘guests’.
Security arrangements will need to be reviewed to ensure appropriately secure access to applications and data.