The recent Coronavirus outbreak has shed light on the need for companies to have procedures & plans in place.
With the growing global concern around coronavirus (COVID-19) and the uncertainty of what’s to come or how long it will last, your business should have a proactive plan in place. Here are some questions and scenarios solut has been assessing with our clients from a technology perspective, and want to share to help you to prepare for keeping your employees safe and your business functioning.
- Business Continuity Plan – Creating a plan to enable ongoing operations before & during an incident will prevent chaos and allow ongoing operations before and during implementation. To create a plan best suited for you, look at what is critical to your business. How will events impact your business?
- If your company has a plan in place, do others in the organization know about it?
- Where is it located – on a computer desktop, or in the office you potentially can’t get to?
- Have you ever done a test run of your plan? A test run of rotating staff to work from home would be beneficial to identify any issues proactively.
- Employee Safety– To protect your employees and those around them, they must be versed in what to do before something happens.
- Have a well thought out plan in place regarding sickness & communicate it with your employees.
- Let employees know how your business will respond to various scenarios – quarantined areas, suspected persons infected, etc. Communicate with them what your plans are and how they should prepare.
- Establish a work from home policy that your business can implement.
- Remote Work & Disaster Recovery – Have a strategy in place for departments of your business that are able to work from home. This will ensure you will be able to maintain day to day operations.
- Can your employees get access to the systems they need to keep your business functioning without being in an office?
- Does your IT infrastructure have the capacity to support all of your employees working remotely?
- Do your employees have the technology components & broadband capabilities at home to perform their duties? Consider requiring employees to bring laptops home with them daily, as closures may occur with little notice.
- Are your employees trained on how to work remotely?
- Have employee expectations & procedures been communicated?
- Communication – Along with your team, you should ensure you’re keeping your lenders, clients, suppliers & delivery drivers informed of anything that may affect them.
- Designate at least one point of contact to coordinate communication & ensure everyone is aware of their roles & responsibilities.
- If you decide last minute that your employees should work from home – how are you letting them know? Email? Phone? Do you have an accessible staff list with current phone numbers? Leveraging multiple channels of communication is probably a safe bet here.
- What about ongoing internal communication?
- How will you inform people who may be coming to your office? Clients? Delivery drivers?
- Have you spoken to your vendors & suppliers to see if they’re affected? Will this impact your business down the road?
- Coronavirus Ransomware & Security – There has already been a spike in ransomware and phishing attempts around the coronavirus. In times like these, the cyber criminals ramp up their game & hope to prey on people’s emotions.
- Ensure your employees are educated on this, especially if they are working from home.
- Beware of e-mails containing any links or information regarding coronavirus.
Businesses have different needs and requirements to function, and this guide just covers some general suggestions to think about while creating your business continuity & disaster plan.
If you need help evaluating how prepared you are and the potential impact it may have on your operations, contact us.