Lumine Group COVID-19 Business Continuity Checklist
Every day, new information breaks surrounding COVID-19. Within Lumine Group, since January we have been watching closely as the effects of the virus have led to restricted business travel and cancellations of major tradeshows.
In order to try and offer support during these turbulent times, we would like to share the best practices we have implemented in order to mitigate any COVID-19 business continuity risks within our portfolio. These plans were set in place to ensure the health and safety of employees, business continuity, and customer protection.
Work with your team to develop mitigation tactics for the following risks.
What You Can Do Today
- Set up an initial meeting to brainstorm risk and status.
- Set up an internal online meeting area (via Microsoft Teams, Slack, etc.) as a central location for information sharing.
- Set up a central COVID-19 team with representatives across the company.
- Assign ownership to individuals within these teams who will share frequently changing updates and advice from government organizations, the World Health Organization, and other relevant public health organizations.
- Ensure HR teams are in communication with any team members who feel ill and/or show symptoms of the virus.
- Proactively engage with critical suppliers to understand the nature of their continuity plans.
- If you have not already issued a Work from Home policy, consider doing so. If this is a concern for your business, immediately issue a “trial work from home” day to test communications, logistics, etc.
- Develop an Emergency Response Plan that can be communicated out to stakeholders should it be required.
Identifying the Different Areas of Risk
Work with your team to develop mitigation tactics for the following risks.
A) Employee Risks
- Colleagues are unaware of any changes being made by governments
- Colleagues are unaware of travel strategies/rules/restrictions
- Colleagues feel symptomatic and do not know who to contact
High-Level Mitigation Advice
Leadership needs to work together to provide communications on a regular basis, by assigning certain individuals to keep teams informed. Ensure that all employees are safe, healthy, and feel empowered to share concerns.
B) Operational Risks
- Employees become sick and/or are not able to work resulting in a loss of service continuity being provided to customers
- Work from home solutions do not function
- Building becomes unavailable
- Non-centralized messaging strategy for COVID-19 becomes confusing to customers
High-Level Mitigation Advice
All risks should be reviewed on an ongoing basis given the government advice, status of critical suppliers and impact of workforce availability. Develop skills matrices, implement testing, and begin to research backup suppliers.
C) Suppliers Risks
- Critical suppliers are unable to provide service to businesses resulting in a loss of service to customers (or employees).
- A risk that there is no business continuity plan communicated to suppliers and staff
- Engagement with suppliers becomes restricted due to the absence
High-Level Mitigation Advice
Connect with critical suppliers to understand the nature of their continuity plans. An analysis of key suppliers should be developed and be assessed by each department. Develop necessary questionnaires for suppliers that ask questions about financial risks, development risks, supply chain risks.
Looking Ahead
The spread of this virus continues to escalate every day and we are facing an unprecedented situation. We believe that by proactively assessing risks and developing mitigation plans, we are taking the right steps to ensure the health and safety of our employees, to support our business leaders, and to protect our customers during this difficult period.
Ultimately, this is a health crisis. We wish safety and health to everyone across the world and promise that we will continue to do our part in being responsible corporate, and global citizens.
Stay safe!
April 2, 2020