While times are uncertain during the COVID-19 pandemic, preparing for unexpected alert level changes can help a business stay afloat. There is a number of things you can do.
Stay up to date with government announcements and follow daily press conferences and releases. Monitoring the current situation will help you to act on the most up to date advice and adapt if guidelines may change.
If your staff can work from home, make sure they have everything they need to set up. Have a plan in place so they can move to working remotely quickly. Health and safety measures should be in place in the work environment such as QR code posters, contract tracing registers and you may need to provide PPE for your staff such as face coverings. If possible, make certain files and information available digitally, so everyone can access these remotely.
Effective communication is important! Having an app like Zoom or Teams set up and ready to go. This is a great way to ensure staff can communicate and meet together remotely. Setting things up while in the office and training staff to use these apps will help make things run smoothly.
Have a checklist in place to communicate with suppliers and clients if a change in alert levels occurs, such as a level 4 lockdown. Deliveries may have to be redirected or put on hold and client meetings may have to be postponed or held virtually. You might even want to have signage ready on how clients can reach you if you are closed or only open for appointments during different alert levels.
The more you can prepare in advance, the smoother things will run!
