COVID-19 Where do we go from here?

As countries continue the process of reopening their economies, many companies are thinking through how to safely resume their previously suspended operations, how to start new projects as well as how to bring employees back to physical work locations.

The reopening of operations is fraught with concerns that business owners and executives must factor into planning, both to be a responsible corporate citizen and to avoid potential legal liability in the future. Companies need to carefully consider specific actions they can take to ensure the safety of all their stakeholders. From the beginning it is vitally important to develop sound processes and procedures, to create systems to aid compliance, and create a dynamic feedback system to ensure what has been implemented is effective and supports the goals of the organization. Discipline and diligence in an enterprise risk management approach has never been more important than it is today.

Risk management should be are the core of any ‘return to work’ initiative and the Risk Manager must play a central role advising the business or project leaders in order to help minimize the overall risk to the organization and its stakeholders.

This pandemic (COVID-19) has served as a sobering wake-up call for many organizations and many are learning hard lessons in regard to their lack of preparedness and ability to sustain operations during a long duration crisis event. Many have come to realize that risk assessments, business continuity planning and annual exercises that help train and align key leaders and resources were seldom prioritized. Lessons learnt from previous events were all but ignored with the all too common ‘that won’t happen to us’ mentality. Now, within most organizations, these functions have the full attention of senior leadership, and managers throughout the business now understand the need and importance for such tools.

So, as many experts predict the prospect of a second wave in the Fall that could be complicated by its timing to coincide with the regular flu season, what can businesses do to protect employees and operations, mitigate risks and endure this second wave without the need to completely shut down? What are some questions managers and staff should be asking themselves now to identify vulnerabilities and better manage any potential impact?

There are three steps all organizations should be considering now:

1.    Conduct a thorough risk assessment – as no two businesses are the same, the rationale would dictate that, no two solutions would be the same. A company must assess the risks to their specific organization and identify the correct control measures in order to develop a plan to mitigation the risk.

2.   Risk mitigation – the findings from the risk assessment will help the company develop and overarching strategy to mitigate the risk or risks. This strategy must take into account lessons learnt from the impact of the first wave as well as what needs to happen to lessen the impact of subsequent waves and balance these against the needs of the business, including that which involves employee safety.

3.   Response – organizations will need to implement cross-functional teams made of risk management, HR, security, business continuity and key business units. They will need to develop formal mechanisms for communicating routine and response messages as well as a means to track and deal with rumors or concerns from various stakeholders. Given the nature of this new environment, these functional leads will need to stay informed of developments inside and external to the organizational as no entity will be able to operate long-term within an enforced ‘bubble’.

Leadership and those supporting them will need to ask themselves routinely:

·     What do we know?

·     What do we need to know?

·     What has happened since we last convened?

·     What should we be doing to help our teams be safe and successful?

You don't need me to remind you that we are currently living in unprecedented times with regards to this global pandemic. It may be too late to dwell on what should have happened in your company or organization to better prepare for what we’re facing now. It however is not too late to prepare for the future; companies have an obligation to keep all of their stakeholders safe. To fail now could at worst lead them to face legal liability or simply lose their customers trust and their competitive edge.