All sectors have very significant roles to play during this COVID-19 pandemic especially when it comes to adapting to and implementation of new policies, standards and practices related to health and safety to prevent and control the spread of the deadly virus. Considering the nature of the virus, social distancing and proper hygiene are measured as the most effective practices to be observed. Consequently, ceasing of business operations requiring physical contact has been imposed which caused a major blow in the global economy.
While the World Health Organization (WHO), in cooperation with National Health Organizations and Governments across the globe, works on finding the solution to the current global health crisis, how do business organizations effectively respond in such situation? How do they ensure business continuity amid the current global condition?
How can ISO 22301 help your organization?
ISO 22301:2019 Business Continuity Management System (recently revised from ISO 22301:2012) specifies requirements to implement, maintain and improve a management system to protect against, reduce the likelihood of the occurrence of, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disruptions when they arise. This management system also enables organizations to engrain the business continuity discipline across the services they offer. It not only allows you to obtain a better understanding of your organization but also implements a business continuity strategy with proper response tactics. Ultimately, you will be able to gain better drive alignment of resilience capabilities in parallel with key management initiatives that drive continual improvement.
Develop new strategies?
Prioritize: Organization has to ensure the management team; team leaders are clear about prioritized activities of the organization.
Communicate: Develop and Communicate the business continuity policy, the business impact analysis, the business continuity strategies, and the business continuity plans.
Motivate: Employees might be unavailable due to several reasons. People might be sick, or are afraid of being infected, or just need to stay away from work due to responsibilities towards other family members (such as minors, next of kin, and elderly). These people might well be motivated to show up for work but feel an obligation that they have other priorities.
Back-Up: Ensure all employees are trained and can provide back-up for others who are infected.
Modify Work Policy: Develop work from home culture ((including network connectivity, security, data protection, confidentiality, etc) and make sure that there are enough configured hardware resources available.
Use video conferences and telephones (rather than face-to-face meetings).
Reduce/cancel activities that involve large groups of people.
Enhance awareness programs for personal hygiene.
Consider your suppliers also. Purchase if needed only.
Create Protocols: Compile protocols for those who are having symptoms, visitors as well as suppliers.
Facility Maintenance: Make sure that your workplace has all the necessary supplies of hygiene products and disinfection carried out at regular intervals.
Planning for the Long Term?
Organizations ought to consider planning for an uncertain period in which they will have to run on contingency measures due to a pandemic crisis. For the current outbreak, whose roots haven’t been properly researched.
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