Companies have survived the early impact of COVID-19; now the focus is keeping the concern going.
There is a lot of talk in treasury and risk circles lately about business continuity plans or BCPs. The talk is mainly around whether the plans worked and what lessons have been learned in the latest crisis. But there has not been as much talk about business resiliency, that is, whether the company, now in the throes of major health crisis, can hang in there and navigate ups and down.
A recent Deloitte article on resiliency stressed that business leaders must be “vigilantly focused on protecting financial performance during and through the crisis … and making hard, fact-based decisions.” But what is also important, particularly in this crisis where lockdowns and employee isolation are the norm, is communications with those employees, keeping them engaged to help keep the company moving forward.
Isolation stress. In a recent call with members of NeuGroup’s Internal Auditors’ Peer Group, several auditors said they were addressing the stresses that go with working remotely and the disconnect many employees feel as they isolate in their homes.
- In previous calls, members themselves have said that while working from home they often don’t know whether an action they take is just a shot in the dark with no result. “Is anything happening out there?” wondered one auditor.
Layoff fear. During the recent call, one member detailed how his company started doing a weekly check-in with employees, which included doctors and members of the human resources team. Doctors are there to answer health questions and HR can help with fears of layoffs. “Everyone feels like they’re out of touch and everyone is worried about layoffs at this point,” the member said.
Another member said management at his company conducts similar calls, but in a more hierarchical way. They have calls with worldwide site leaders who in turn have calls with their employees. They also do calls with individual region leadership, like those in EMEA and Latin America.
- “They have very candid discussions,” the member said. Globally, employees can submit questions to managers that may or may not be addressed (due to volume) in any one of these calls. He said most of the questions regard layoffs.
Still another member said that his company’s HR is now providing support services for people isolated at home, which includes health services.
Mapping the return. NeuGroup members continue to talk about returning to work and how that will all play out. One member said management meets with the CEO once a week to discuss locations and where stay-at-home orders are easing so they can start their back-to-work programs.
- Discussions also increasingly include reducing the company’s footprint by having some people work from home part time or on a rotational basis. “We’re looking at each location globally and doing the analysis,” said one member.
