While we keep an eye on the events around the Coronavirus outbreak, we have to start planning on how this outbreak might impact your business and personal life.
Maybe I am overreacting, but it does not hurt to plan and be prepared. Just find a spare moment and think it through for the following two areas that will be impacted:
- Your Family
- You Business/Employer
Corona Virus Dashboard for updates across the globe.
Some considerations for Families (this is not an exhaustive list):
- Ensure you are in contact with all your family members
- Avoid taking public transport, if you have to wear a mask (refer to your local pharmacy to get advice on which one to buy)
- Avoid going to public places such as malls, restaurants, etc.
- For grocery shopping, just one person goes and does it instead of the whole family.
- I guess it is time to get back into the habit of using hand sanitizers
- Educate young children on do’s and don’ts when outside
- Keep an extra vigilant eye on old and the very young.
Some considerations for businesses (this is not an exhaustive list):
- Inform your leadership on planning and determine at which point to share the information with the rest of the organization.
- Contact your insurance company to see if you have the necessary coverage
- Engage your lawyers to ensure you are not providing too much information or too little to ensure liability issues are covered.
- Update all your Employee contact details (phone numbers, addresses, emergency contact) and work location
- Keep track of employees who have travelled to china
- Identify critical business functions that your business relies on
- Ensure your critical business functions are documented
- Ensure you have an individual(s) who can conduct the critical business function just in case prime is unavailable
- Identify locations that are at a higher risk
- Understand at which point will it become necessary to shut down a particular location
- If you have employees in the field ensure you know where they are
- Provide employees with technology to ensure they can work remotely
- Identify a Crisis Team who will be responsible for information gathering, sending it to your leadership team to decide and then propagate it to the rest of the employees.
- The Crisis team will:
- Engage with health authorities
- Monitor news agencies to ensure they have the latest information at all times.
- Monitor hashtags on twitter, following are the trending hashtags #coronavirus #coronaoutbreak
- Information flow is key, ensure you identify intervals when to disseminate information and strike a balance between too much and too little information.
- If possible, set up a phone number, record a message, where employees can call to get the latest update
- Engage your leadership team and set up a command structure to ensure critical business decision-makers are available to provide necessary input.
- Decide on whom employees will contact if they have questions:
- Contact their immediate leader
- Call the toll-free number for updates
#coronavirus #coronaoutbreak #health #bcp #businessresiliency #businesscontinuity
For discussion join Slack Channel: https://join.slack.com/t/securityprivacyrisk/shared_invite/enQtOTA3MzMzMzU4NzU0LTBiZGVlMTQzMDFjMjFlYWRhNjYwYjNlMGIzZWY1OTQ1YmUwZjZmZDk2ZWVkM2IwNWU4MzI5NTNiYTIyNTNhZWM
