Business continuity plans for a post-pandemic world

It’s fair to say that none of us saw the COVID-19 pandemic coming. In the business community, the spring of 2020 was marked by government-mandated statewide shutdowns, entire workforces hurriedly transitioning to remote work, rapidly changing federal guidelines, and long periods of uncertainty about what the future would look like.Although the losses and disruptions to daily life were severe, the country seems to have weathered its first pandemic—but there is a remarkable absence of the “return to normal” messaging we might have expected to hear. The truth is, while many of us are returning to the office, we’re not really going back to what was normal. The COVID-19 pandemic redefined our entire outlook and perspective on what life looks like going forward—we’re going back to a post-pandemic world. Fortunately, we’re going armed with the lessons we’ve gained from 2020.

As we’ve all learned very well over the past year, a pandemic event can occur suddenly and disrupt an organization’s essential business functions and operations. In order to help maintain the production of goods and services, business leaders need to incorporate pandemic planning into their organizations’ overall business continuity plan to mitigate the impacts of a pandemic on operations and employee health and safety. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of having a pandemic plan in place. We’ll also give you tips for creating and implementing an effective pandemic plan for your organization.

The Importance of Having a Pandemic Plan

A pandemic plan is intended to support an organization’s broader business continuity or crisis management plan. This plan exists to ensure the health and safety of staff by implementing protocols to limit the spread of the virus and limit potential exposure for employees while delivering essential services to customers.

 

continue reading »