3 Steps On Planning For A Post-COVID Environment

During these truly unprecedented times, it’s more important than ever for businesses in the Bay Area to make preparations for what their operation will look like post-COVID-19. 

There are three key steps you should take to ensure your business is in the best position to thrive in a post-COVID climate. This article is going to look at those steps, including the initial measures you must act upon quickly and then the subsequent steps that will set your team up for success in the long run. 

Being flexible and open to change will mean adapting your operation and workflows to suit the current climate. This is the only way to ensure that you come out the other side of this crisis stronger and ready to bounce back. 

No matter the size of the company or the industry you’re in, you’ll need to pivot your business, not pause it, in order to survive. Having a large number of your employees make the transition to remote work is a lot to deal with, but these vital steps should help you and your team to cope. 

“You must be flexible and open to doing things differently”

 Scott Taylor, CEO of GSC Logistics

STEP 1: Ensuring Safety

Safety is paramount. You need to act quickly to take the appropriate steps that will ensure the safety of your workforce. For businesses in the Bay Area, the spotlight is going to be on us to utilize cutting edge technology to enable employees to have success while working remotely.

Aside from remote work, it’s important that you reassure your teams that their safety is of the highest priority to you. It’s unreasonable to assume that things will go back to ‘normal’ after the pandemic, so you’re going to have to think even further ahead about how you will continue to ensure safety when people come back to the workplace. 

Communicate with your employees openly and honestly about the steps you’re taking or plan to take to continue sanitization and social distancing. You can expect these kinds of things will become part of your standard operating procedure for a substantial period of time.  

STEP 2: Evaluate Who is Best for Remote Work

You’ll need to meet with your executive team and decide which aspects of your operation are both critical and can take place remotely. The easiest way to do this would be to make three lists of teams and roles that:

• CAN be done remotely
• CAN’T be done remotely
• COULD be done remotely with some changes

Following this, you will need to update your operating procedures for those team members who will be working remotely and make it transparent or accessible. Making this transition is not going to be easy but to make it less stressful, it’s a good idea to create guidelines for your remote employees as well as online training to teach them how to access things remotely, best practices, and correct use of tools. 

“...41% of Employees Likely to Work Remotely at Least Some of the Time…” [1] so you could look at creating a roster and alternating between who works remotely and who comes to the office. This would help you to maintain social distancing in the workplace while allowing those who would like to work from home, the opportunity to do so. 

STEP 3: Share Information Freely 

By sharing information freely with your teams, you will ultimately set them up for success. While many things are uncertain, you can reassure your employees by being upfront with them which means being transparent and maintaining communication. 

Have regular check-ins to make sure that your teams have everything they need to perform their roles such as software, platforms, and access to communication tools but don’t micromanage. Have realistic expectations of your teams as they make this transition and trust that they’re doing everything to the best of their ability.      

You might encounter new threats to your remote workforce and it’s vital that you make everyone aware of the dangers they might encounter and how to avoid them. There will be new types of phishing attacks and attempts to steal VPN credentials. Therefore you should document and share a security policy that applies to your work from home employees.  

If you’re wondering how much information you should share with your employees, I’d say the answer is: Almost everything. Don’t just share information about changes to workflows and operations, share information about anything that is being impacted as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. 

I cannot stress this enough, transparency is vital if you want to keep your workforce productive and recover from the lapse in the economy. Reinforce your business goals, let your team know where you stand, and celebrate any success to keep up morale. Your team cannot help you if they don’t have a clear idea of the situation that you’re in. You’ll be amazed by how much people can come together when they have all the information that they need. If your employees are kept informed, they can align themselves with your needs.  

Prepare yourself and your business for the future

Right now we can only speculate as to what the future will hold, but we can be pretty certain that business won’t look like it did pre-COVID for some time. It’s better to keep moving forward and make the necessary changes now than to stop your operations entirely and wait for things to blow over. 

Ensure the safety of your workers, make adjustments to allow people to continue their role remotely wherever possible, and most importantly, document and share as much information as you can. Manage your expectations, maintain momentum and you will come out the other side of this crisis a much stronger business. 

If you're having trouble with strategy, documentation, or implementation, set up a free consultation with me or download my FREE Post COVID checklist to help you navigate these uncertain times.