Should I have a contingency plan?

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Absolutely. Think about all the ways the coronavirus could affect your business – whether it’s disruption to supply chains, cancelled contracts or employee absence. This will help you plan for all eventualities. Consider the likely immediate impact, plus the potential impact and how best you can handle this.

 

Depending on the size of your business, you may wish to set up a contingency planning group, consisting of people who can represent different parts of your business, who can monitor the situation and provide updates to employees on a daily basis, as well as taking any action required. 

 

The question you will need to ask is if this goes on for an extended length of time, how do you keep productivity up and how do you ensure your employees’ wellbeing without putting the profitability of the business at risk?  

 

This is a balance and will require a thoughtout approach in terms of, prevention strategies, allowing people to take time off and working from home.  If you are asking people to work from home, what additional equipment, IT services will you need to set up and if working from a network, will it stand up to more people accessing it remotely?