I often lead crisis management drills for one of our customers in the hospitality industry. One of their biggest concerns is how to effectively recover from their loss of staff during COVID-19.
It wasn’t just small business that took a major hit during the pandemic. Some big-name franchises did as well. All this leads to the question: How do you continue to respond to crises with a skeleton staff?
Here are a few tips to keep in mind when developing your own business continuity plan:
- Have training documents prepared. If there is an event where new hires or contractors need to respond quickly, be sure to have comprehensive training documents prepared.
- Be ready to pivot. Keep track of newly available data and continuously generate new hypotheses based on updated information. Quickly model and stress test multiple courses of action.
- Think geographically. Predict and plan for factors such as geographical spread of the virus or its variants, how local governments may respond to it, and potential intervention strategies.
- Consider business interruption insurance. This is a type of insurance that covers the loss of income that a business suffers after a disaster. The income loss may be due to the disaster closing the business facility or the rebuilding process afterward.
- Prepare for your recovery. Develop a plan for data backup. Contract with third parties. And continue to test your emergency response plan.
There is much to consider when creating a business continuity plan; these are just a few ideas. Because it’s difficult to predict when a crisis will strike, it helps to be prepared.
Even though COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted and we’re evolving into this new normal, it helps to use what you have learned through this experience to prepare to the next time your business suffers a crisis.
When it comes to crisis management, FEI is a leader in preparedness, response and recovery. To learn more about how we focus on the human dimension of crisis and trauma, please click here.