How to create and what to include in a recovery plan post-Covid19 phase?

We have a simple 3 step process for helping organisations to put together their recovery plans.

It can be run in anything from 1 day to 4 weeks and is incredibly cost-effective, depending on how in-depth and evidence-based you want the process to be.

It helps you to capture the needs of people in and around the organisation at this unique time. It helps you to understand where the opportunities and threats are and then assess the different courses of action you might take to move forward so you understand which are most likely to work best.

If that sounds interesting, let me know. 

Hi Maria,

Your question is very good and important to all businesses who are affected by this global situation, whether they are more or less affected.

As a marketing specialist, my oppinion is that every company should have or make right now a plan how to proceed after this global pandemic issue is over. The two main action pillars should be internal and external communications.

For example, if we take a company that already set up their business and employees to work from home, they should first plan the steps to return to their offices when the time comes. Large and small team meetings with analysis of the past situation and future steps of work are prefferable so that the employees would be informed about the current situation of the company and how they will proceed next. Additional morale boosting meetings are a plus. HR meetings with questionaires and tips for the employees should also be considered. There are more things and details that could be considered having in mind the company, it's business and employees.

External communication is a must. A company should not be passive in such times. There should be a communication towards clients, business partners, subcontractors, mass audience (if aplicable) and through media channels. A communication strategy should be developed for the time being in a global pandemic/work from home situation and also one for when it is over. Those two strategic plans should be connected because you would want to keep the communication flow and interest towards your clients, partners and audience. It really depends on your business and current situation but they are plenty options that could be considered, such as promotions, webinars, offline seminars, media communications, CSR campaigns etc.

We are now making such strategic plans for our clients, even with discounts, because we know that fore some are hard times and we value our partnership with them. Some of those strategies are only with digital and social media activities, some are more complex with both internal and external communication. We all know that it is not going to be easy but it is better to be prepared and to follow a certain strategy or even just strategic tips.

I am interested in learing more about your business, Maria and I would be glad if I could help you with anything.

Kind regards,

Stamen

Hi Maria:

Take care of your peopleFor any operation, the most important resource is people; therefore, they should be the first priority. During the response phase, companies should establish a robust and frequent communications channel with all employees, one that includes a monitoring mechanism to understand whether the employees or their families have been infected or impacted by the virus. Consider remote or partially remote working environments with a portion of employees working in the office and the rest working from home. Businesses must be sensitive to employees’ families and their safety and health. Be proactive and give frequent advice to families on how to best continue to protect themselves at home and in public to prevent recontamination. Most people get their health news from social media, a place very susceptible to rumor and misinformation. No employee can function properly if they are afraid for their family.

When planning for the Recovery phase, develop protocols that ensure that employees are healthy before returning to the office. And provide a safe, sanitary work environment when they return. All workstations and equipment should be sterilized to ensure that no further transmission is possible.

Establish a clear governance systemOne of the first priorities for recovery planning is to have a clear governance model that prioritizes quick decision-making. This is particularly important for larger, more hierarchical companies with an abundance of processes. An Executive Recovery Committee (ERC) should be established for the corporation, one that cascades responsibility to regional and local organizing committees. Each should be given authority to take decisions at the local level related to personnel and operating assets as needed. Be prepared for a phased recovery. Most likely, it will take time to return to full operations; that means you need to prepare to bring people and operations back up in a reasoned, planned, and structured way. Game out various scenarios and roadblocks to help prepare.

Run new risk assessmentsGiven the uncertainty inherent to this pandemic – transmissibility and seasonality, for example – it is critical that companies re-run any risk assessment that they have in place, using three different scenarios:

• 1-2 months of circulating virus and a shortterm financial impact to your company
• More than 2 months of viral impact and a global economic slowdown
• A far-reaching pandemic and sustained global recession

The risk assessment should first focus on critical business operations—this especially includes people. The human, financial, technological and operational implications within each scenario should be fully understood. For example, within a food company, companies should ensure that full sterilization of all assets take place during the recovery, to proactively manage any concerns about product contamination. And they should be prepared to prove it, thus preempting public doubt or fear.

These are distinct from any impact assessments during the response phase, and thus should be run as a separate exercise.

Develop a realistic view of supply chain disruptions and customer implicationsThe pandemic has wreaked havoc on the supply chains of many companies. For example, Hyundai suspended production in South Korea because of a shortage of parts manufactured in China, and that was before the coronavirus hit the country itself. Even Apple, which earns about a quarter of its operating income in China, temporarily closed its stores and assembly plants and faces supply chain problems as 290 of its 800 suppliers are based in China.2 As more companies take measures to contain community spread, supply shortages will become more pronounced and far-reaching. As such, it is critical that companies get a realistic picture of the inputs that they can expect from existing suppliers, and what can be sourced elsewhere in order to deliver according to production targets. Companies may be optimistic in their ability to deliver, so efforts to get a realistic picture will be paramount. Companies do not just face supplier fulfilment problems but the actual transport of goods may be even more heavily impacted.

Concurrently, companies must also provide realistic projections to their customers, and not over-promise. It is natural that companies want to reassure their customers, but over promising breeds distrust. There may be staff shortages, should staff still be under quarantine or recovering from any illness or family matters related to the disease.

Review operational risks and asset integrityDuring any unplanned shutdown, there are risks that are inherent to startup; indeed, process safety incidents are five times more likely to occur during startup than during normal operations.3 To mitigate such risks, a full restart assessment should be done on all critical risks to ensure integrity of all assets and processes before restart. Policies and procedures should be updated and fully documented as well. Some of the assets were likely not maintained according to schedule, so they should be fully checked in accordance with all lockout/tagout procedures, and any maintenance work completed before startup. Control processes that have been digitized should also be tested. Finally, a detailed prestartup safety review should be completed.

Use the down time productivelyAs operations slow or come to a halt, there is an opportunity to harness home-bound staff to maximize the preparedness of your operations for the recovery stage. They can update procedures and training; review contractor planning and potentially onboard new contractors for the surge of work during startup; create startup checklists; conduct people planning, and how to staff the scaleup of operations. It is also an ideal time to build skills among the workforce on how to better manage and mitigate operational risk by deploying virtual training or relevant eLearning modules.

Focus on external communicationIf the virus has impacted your company – be it an impacted employee, confirmed transmission in the workplace, an imposed quarantine or even a perception that the company has not done enough - there may be some reputational damage. As such, proactive measures to reassure all customers, stakeholders, community members and the general public should be deployed. External audiences want to know what happened, what mitigation efforts were put in place and how the company can ensure that they will be able to deliver in line with expectations. By showing that the company is “open for business”, it reassures employees, communities and investors, thus contributing to improvement of the wider economic outlook.

Conclusion

While many companies believe that they are prepared to respond to a business disruption, sufficient time is not placed on recovery. And this is even more prevalent for coronavirus because response blends into recovery. It’s never too early to begin planning for recovery. The actions recommended in this paper should be an extension of response efforts, rather than a new or separate initiative. While it may be the same team executing the work, recovery efforts are distinct from response efforts. During the response phase, the goal is to limit the impact on your people and operations. In the recovery phase, the focus is on resuming critical business functions quickly and minimizing loss of customers. It is critical that companies place ample focus on recovery planning and turn risk into opportunity by being prepared and proactive.

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