Our Company’s Fight Against Covid-19
The COVID-19 outbreak has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. In China and other countries where the virus has been seen, public health authorities have primarily focused on emergency medical attention and limiting the rate of spread of the virus. However, broader negative economic consequences are expected for many companies.
A great effort is being made around the world to limit COVID-19. Even if the COVID-19 epidemic can be brought under control in a relatively short time, companies need to manage the negative effects caused by the virus for a long time. Therefore, crisis management is an issue that needs to be addressed at the highest level of management in companies.
Managing crises is a fact of business life. The companies participating in the 2019 Global Crisis Survey; 69% have experienced at least one crisis in the last five years and 95% expect to face a crisis in the future. Subject; It is the level of preparedness for the crisis that will determine whether a company will survive when it does, not whether a crisis will occur.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses unique challenges for employees, operations, company stakeholders in general, and society as a whole. Restricting the circulation of employees creates operational problems, and psychological factors have a negative impact on the workforce. In both cases, timely and effective communication with internal and external stakeholders is essential. Accordingly, we can summarize the main issues to be considered in the context of COVID-19 for business executives under 4 headings:
- Test your crisis and business continuity plans. While most businesses have crisis and business continuity plans, it’s important to test these plans regularly. On the other hand, COVID-19 has revealed that some plans are inadequate and/or not working well, make sure that this does not apply to your plans as well.
- Build a strong “Crisis Management Team”. A global crisis like COVID-19 is having an impact on every major function of institutions. In order to combat the crisis, it is important that teams from different functions and senior management work in coordination. We recommend the creation of a multi-disciplinary and expert team, usually composed of Risk, HR, Finance, Legal, Operations, IT, Business Continuity and Communications units, formed and supervised by the CEO to lay out the actions needed to overcome the crisis and provide strategic guidance.
- Focus on the data. Reliable data supports both crisis planning and crisis response. 2019 Global Crisis Survey found that three-quarters of stronger recession businesses focused on reliable data during the crisis. The crisis plan should set out how the information flow will be and ensure that the reliability of this information is accepted by all stakeholders. Reliable data is a key element of crisis planning and helps to identify how a potential crisis will affect the business in the short, medium and long term by supporting different scenarios.
- Keep your employees and work environment safe. Your employees located in regions that may be affected by the virus due to the situation created by COVID-19 will expect a comprehensive emergency action plan, guidance and regular communication from you. Review your travel rules, HR policies, first aid plans and make the necessary arrangements. Prioritize providing a safe office environment so that your employees, business partners and stakeholders can come to your workplace when necessary.