Pandemic Planning

The following actions have been put together by Georgie one of our Consultants on how to look after your staff during this pandemic:

WFH/Wellbeing

1. If constant news updates regarding coronavirus are triggering anxiety, try to limit listening to or checking the news once in the morning and once in the evening (to ensure you are aware of latest measures) to prevent worrying throughout the day when trying to work.
2. Treat working from home the same as you would treat working from the office, get up at a decent time, shower, get dressed and take regular breaks throughout the day.
3. If you are in a household with others who are not working, set limits and boundaries so that you are not being disturbed during working hours.
4. Ensure regular contact with colleagues through VC and phone, keep being social and check up on each other.
5. Try and have something planned to look forward to during downtime whether it is a 20-minute walk, watching a TV programme or film or playing a game.
6. Ensure to keep up a balanced lifestyle, keep active and try to eat healthily.
7. If possible, set up workspace somewhere that you do not use out of working hours (e.g. living room, bedroom) this will help separate work and downtime.
8. Set out a plan for each working day before you start, this will help you stay focussed and prioritise jobs.

Advice for those in Leadership Roles

1. Be transparent and honest with employees, it is better to give them time to prepare and deal with upcoming issues rather than to tell them suddenly. It is an unpredictable time for everybody so you should inform them of anything that is certain.
2. Look forward to the future, the world will be much different when the pandemic is over, it is important to prepare for whatever that future may look like.
3. Communicate often and with clarity, do not withhold information and be concise in what you communicate.
4. Be sure to demonstrate confidence, this will ensure your employees are confident in you and your abilities and hopefully lift the team’s morale.

Recovering to BAU after Pandemic/Ongoing Support

1. Acknowledge that all staff may not be comfortable with returning to the office immediately, be flexible with the remote working policy.
2. Reinforce processes and procedures when all staff return to the office, this will ensure work is being done effectively and will provide a level of discipline.
3. Ensure that products such as wipes and hand sanitizer are readily available for use in every office space.
4. Consider having the office deep cleaned and make staff aware of this, as any staff in the ‘vulnerable’ category or who lives with somebody vulnerable may be sceptical of returning to work.
5. If schools have not reopened, make sure you are providing support to those with children at home, they may be unable to get access to childcare.
6. Update pandemic plan (or develop a pandemic plan) with any lessons learned from the COVID-19 outbreak, ensure that these lessons are acted upon in case of a similar incident in the future.
7. Provide support to anyone who may have been directly affected by the virus (relative contracted virus, partner or family member job loss etc.)
8. Monitor staff morale, the world is likely to have changed in a number of different ways and staff safety and wellbeing should be paramount.

Previous actions which should be continued

 Here are some ideas of actions I suggest you carry out in if not already doing so:

1. If in doubt of how to respond to an incident and where to start, carry out a dynamic risk assessment. For your organisation consider the following:
   • What is the best case?
   • What is the most likely case?
   • What is the reasonable worst case?
2. Once you have thought through each of these different cases then you should have a better idea of what could happen and if there are any actions you can take now to prevent the worst-case from happening.
3. You also need to think about how a prolonged lockdown is going to affect your organisation. As suggested in Step 2 of my 7-Step process, I think you should focus on how your customers may react, how their buying habits may change and what the long term impact of the shutdown will be. Consider the following questions:
   • Will there be a huge pent up demand for customers to go out and spend money enjoying themselves once they are able to do so?
   • How badly will the economy be affected?
   • Will potential customers want to spend money and make investments? Will they hoard what cash they have? Or will they use it to pay deferred payments which have become due?
4. The impact may differ depending on the length of the lockdown, but you could carry out the dynamic risk assessment at step 1 to look at the impact across different lengths of lockdown.
5. The lockdown is going to affect your suppliers and this impact may only become apparent after a period of time has passed. You should put processes in place to monitor your supply chain and ensure that any failures to deliver are identified early. If the lockdown is prolonged many businesses may fold, mothball production or their staff may be furloughed under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. Early identification of issues with suppliers or supplies will allow your organisation time to find alternates and continue operations.
6. You need to ensure that your organisation keeps an eye on what is being delivered and what is not being done. There may be work that, if not carried out, could have a major impact on the organisation that is only noticed several weeks down the line. Your BIA can help you identify which are the most time-critical activities for your organisation and you can check that these are being delivered to their predetermined level.
7. Keeping in touch with staff and ensuring morale is kept high is a key role of management during this situation, especially if employees are worried about their jobs, finances and future. This can be compounded by having their children at home or spending an unusual amount of time working in their home alongside their partner or spouse. Those who live on their own may also find it difficult, as they are used to the social interaction of going to work. We at PlanB have introduced a brief conference call every morning for all staff to talk through their plans for each day, we have also implemented a daily survey where staff can rate their level of morale. Early intervention, good communications and leadership are all important factors in looking after your staff and making sure that your organisation is ready to resume when this is over.
8. Think through how you will sustain home working and keep in touch with your staff as is likely they will have to work from home for a number of weeks. Discuss how you will sustain morale.
9. Review the impact of closing schools on your staff’s ability to continue to deliver their role. Note that many schools will set work for children so there may need for parents to supervise and support their children. Will you stick with existing HR rules on time off for looking after children and others at home or will you change them.
10. Review your RTOs and MTPDs and review them in light of current operations. Can some operations be suspended to concentrate on the ones with the shortest RTOs. Look at your MBCOs and check that you are not near reaching them.
11. If the current situation is going to last for several weeks, review the impact on your business model. If required look at the government help to businesses and apply early if help is required.
12. Make sure your Pandemic Team is meeting every morning, reviewing any changes to the situation and decided whether any new actions or communications need to be made. 
13. Conduct daily checks on the impact of the pandemic on your organisation, do this through regular communication of all parts of your organisation to the Pandemic Team.
14. As government advice changes, you should communicate any of the new actions to be carried out to staff and stakeholders.