Preparing for Corona Virus.
Coronavirus and Business Continuity
Is your business prepared?. Dolce Vita has begun working from our business continuity protocols both for the safety of our staff and our clients.
What we know
The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) is an outbreak of respiratory disease, now detected nearly worldwide, with over 100,000 diagnosed cases including in every state in the US. Thousands of deaths are now attributed to COVID-19.
In early March COVID-19 was declared to be a pandemic
The clinical situation with COVID-19 is not well understood. Illness severity has ranged from mild to severe and has caused severe illness and death for otherwise healthy people. It appears to have more severe impacts in older men, as well as those with compromised immune systems and respiratory function.
Importantly the CDC reports that most people will be able to recover from COVID-19 at home, but it does apparently tend to cause more respiratory damage to those with weak or compromised immune and respiratory function.
There is currently no vaccine nor any approved medications for treatment of COVID-19. Non-pharmaceutical interventions are the most important response strategy per CDC (6 March 2020)
The latest general and highlighted CDC guidance is here.
What should businesses do?
Because of the unique aspects of COVID-19 (high level of infectiousness, long period of time before symptoms appear in infected people, and the severe effects on some parts of the population):
When looking at the profit and loss (P&L) statement for the business, understand where the most critical net income and revenue occur
Understand which individuals in the business are most influential in generating this net income
Ensure that a list of these key players who are most responsible for “keeping the doors open” exists
Develop a remote work plan for those key players essential to “keeping the doors open”, and be thinking about the plan for other users
Remote access? If you already use ANY GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, etc. in your environment, it may be reasonable to implement multifactor authentication (MFA) or onetime passwords (OTP) on the account and simply add users to the account under a month-to-month agreement. Once setup, be sure that everyone tests out their normal workflow…this is NOT something to figure out the day people begin remote work. Printing, scanning, etc.?
Be aware that online meetings, etc. may not work on remote sessions. User typically can establish their remote session to their work desktop, copy the meeting link, then minimize the session. Then they can open a browser on their local desktop, paste in the meeting link and use their local machine for the meeting in the background while their work desktop remote session is also pulled up.
Understand how your phone call flow needs to work: If you use a cloud-based phone system, some adjustments may be needed. Do extensions need to be forwarded to user cell phones? How about voicemail? Do users know how to access VM remotely? Be aware that if voicemail-to-email is implemented it may overload mailbox size maximums. If you use an on-premise phone system, consider how call flow may need to change and whether call forwarding may be needed as users or groups quarantine.
We strongly recommend to avoid users forwarding business email to ANY type of personal email account…this is a significant security issue.
If employees are to be furloughed, how will this affect email and call flow, especially voicemail flow? It helps to plan this ahead of time, as emails of furloughed employees might need to forward to specific managers, so an appropriate subfolder structure and email rules may be needed for that manager. Better to plan and build early.
Is cross-training specific jobs possible?
Are staggered shifts possible?
The CDC indicates that masks are only considered effective to reduce an ill person’s ability to spread the virus. Because much of the risk is due to physical proximity, ensure that a routine is developed for keeping an inventory of sanitation and cleaning supplies. A routine should also be developed for sanitization of keyboards, door handles, desktops, etc. as appropriate. Many of the steps to prevent transmission are the same as those for seasonal flu. See this link to the Center for Biocide Chemistries for a list of products eligible to claim that they are effective against “emerging pathogens”.
For keyboards, mouse, and video monitors as well as work areas, it is strongly recommended to sanitize these areas daily. This is critically important for work areas which are shared by multiple personnel or shift employees. Turn off components and use compressed air or a miniature vacuum on keyboards once every week or two, but sanitize work areas daily. Be sure to follow device warnings about any disinfecting wipes used…these might damage components. Use of isopropyl alcohol (at over 60% concentration) may be a reasonable option, as it avoids damage to the components.
Make a plan to protect employees and visitors based upon risk (visitors like delivery drivers, etc., may have their own rules, so if deliveries are important to your business, get info on limitations).
For businesses like manufacturers who have supply chains in China and other severely affected countries, go back to the notes on other suppliers and develop alternatives for mission-critical parts.
It is advisable to set pre-planned trigger-points under which specific operations need to shut down, or to trigger certain groups to begin working remotely. These trigger points can be exposure or COVID-19 diagnoses within a locality. Or they can be based upon recommendations of national and local health authorities.
Develop communications plans with employees, suppliers, contractors, and partners to cover notifications on changes to business with key contact information. It is critical that if employees or contractors are ill, that they remain home to minimize spread. This link discusses how to reduce the spread of your illness to others.
Develop online alternatives to meetings onsite.
It is important to plan ahead in order to maintain a safe work environment for employees and in order to preserve cash flow. (updated 18 Mar 2020)
