As published in Toledo Business Journal - November 1, 2020

Tweet

Integrating Business Continuity and Pandemic Planning

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged businesses in ways that were previously unimaginable. As a result, Pandemic plans are no longer a luxury.

Developing a formal pandemic plan will guide your organization through the stages of an extended pandemic event to help ensure continued business success. Formal pandemic plans should be considered essential to any organization’s risk management efforts.

Integrating Business Continuity and pandemic plans will result in an exponential benefit and competitive advantage to any organization.

A formal pandemic plan will:

• Be required by customers and lending institutions as a condition of doing business
• Help ensure an organization’s long-term sustainability
• Increase employee and customer confidence
• Be required or strongly recommended by insurance underwriters/carriers

Pandemics are very different from other types of disasters. However, there are existing BCP components that can be leveraged to expedite the pandemic planning process. These include:

Flexible, yet predetermined recovery strategies based on senior leadership approved business needs and priorities

Onsite and remote work priorities

Department/functional recovery procedures

Incident Management Plan (IMP) structure: Team leaders, defined roles and responsibilities, as well as streamlined and efficient information sharing

Pandemic plan elements can enhance existing BCPs and increase organizational resiliency with:

• Enhanced remote work capabilities and testing
• Validation and/or revision of business priorities and strategies
• Development of emergency policies and procedures

Oswald has decades of risk management and pandemic planning experience and is available to assist companies in the development of a documented pandemic plan. We help to develop:

• Short- and long-term business priorities and strategies for each pandemic stage
• Emergency policies and procedures
• Work process reviews and modifications to limit the spread of disease in the workplace
• Clear plan activation criteria based on current and expected conditions
• Employee training
• Organizational decision-making process and protocols
• Event management and communication plans
• Vendor and supplier preparedness

Contact us to learn more and assure that your ogranization is prepared for whatever may come its way.

In addition to helping our clients navigate compliance issues and communication strategies around COVID-19, we are committed to monitoring the impact on our clients’ deomgraphics, utilization, trends, and claims. Visit OswaldCompanies.com to contact us and connect with our COVID-19 Resource Center.

 

---

Note: This communication is for informational purposes only. Although every reasonable effort is made to present current and accurate information, Oswald makes no guarantees of any kind and cannot be held liable for any outdated or incorrect information.

OC_1950