A Guide to Business Recovery from the COVID-19 Crisis

The economic impact of Covid-19 makes business recovery planning critical

The Covid-19 pandemic (including measures to contain its spread) has impacted every aspect of the modern economy. Hundreds of thousands of cases have been reported among working-age adults – at one point, 30 percent of cases in the U.S. were among those aged 20 to 44i – many of which have required hospitalizations. Many workers have also had to lower their productive working hours, at times to serve as caregivers to sick family members, at others to tend to children following school closures.

Widely reported, commercial supply chain impacts have also been enormousⁱⁱ. A staggering 94 percent of the Fortune 1000 have reported seeing coronavirus supply chain disruptionsⁱⁱⁱ. Those disruptions aren’t just to final products but to component parts, as well.

Then, there’s been the evacuation of worksites in compliance with official lockdown orders, which has precipitated the rush to remote working arrangements. Sources vary on the precise scope, but an early April 2020 MIT survey revealed that nearly one third of all workers in the U.S. who had been employed the month before were working from home^iv. That was up from a 2017 baseline of five percent of people working from home, according to Census data^v. 

In other advanced economies, the numbers are even higher. A Gartner HR survey of Australian employers found that a staggering 88 percent of organizations had encouraged or required employees to work from home due to the corona virus^vi. There, the baseline was similarly low, with the best available data showing regular teleworking arrangements among only six percent of the workforce. 

Those rates, of course, look quaint in retrospect, a testament to the scale of the Covid-19 disruption to normal working arrangements. Now, after months of these disruptions, businesses are understandably chomping at the bit to go back to normal as part of the business recovery process.

The question remains, though, have businesses prepared themselves to resume normal working operations? The relative paucity of preparedness for the initial crisis response phase – more than 70 percent of employers admitted not having a pandemic plan in place at the outbreak of the crisis^vii – suggests that recovery planning has been similarly neglected.

That lack of recovery planning matters. Far from flipping the “on” switch, executing business recovery tactics – e.g. safely resuming operations in work facilities vacated due to local, state, and national lockdown orders – requires time and effort. Why? Well, the tactics themselves introduce business risk – risk that if not properly controlled will sink the entire recovery effort.

With so much at stake, how, then, do organizations get business recovery off the ground, while mitigating risk? That’s where we come in. We’ve culled together some of the best recovery resources out there to create a guide to developing your own recovery plan, customized to your organization’s specific needs. 

Need a software solution to manage the full lifecycle of the Covid-19 incident, instead? We’ve got you covered there, too. Our Free Noggin Covid-19 Response Modules for Businesses and Healthcare include all the tools needed to ensure that business recovery from the Covid-19 crisis goes smoothly. 

The need to treat recovery as a distinct lifecycle stage

A challenge of post-crisis recovery is that it is poorly understood. Sure, organizations might undertake best practice, crisis mitigation and response measures. But they often think that those measures alone will be sufficient to effect an efficient recovery. That failure to see recovery as a distinct stage in the lifecycle of an incident produces negative tail effects – the most worrisome being the failure to allocate sufficient resources, both budget and expertise/skills, to the recovery effort^viii. 

So, what is the goal of recovery, after all? And how to overcome some of the challenges to its successful execution? Well, according to international business continuity management system standard, ISO 22301, recovery aims to restore and return business activities from the temporary measures adopted to support normal business requirements after an incident, i.e. response.

In the literature, recovery also follows prevention (P), preparedness (P), and response (R). That entire lifecycle has come to be called PPRR. With roots stemming back to the 1970s, PPRR has been widely embraced as a best-practice emergency and disaster arrangement, with extensive applicability to the business community^ix. And it’s easy to understand why. PPRR offers two broad rationales:

• PPRR usefully sequences or phases emergency incidents, describing the events that occur before, during, and after an event
• PPRR helpfully outlines a menu of available incident management interventions^x

Developing a best-practice recovery plan

Within that toolkit, organizations will find capability requirements, necessary processes, purpose, and outputs for the recovery phase. Key among those is the recovery plan. 

The goal of the recovery plan is to help organizations respond more efficiently to an incident or crisis, by shortening recovery time and minimizing loss. Aimed at rebuilding, reemployment, and repair, the recovery planning process is meant to give organizations the opportunity to deeply consider how they will get up and running again.

To that end, the recovery plan contains information relating to the resumption of critical business activities after a crisis has occurred. The plan sketches out the time frame in which businesses can realistically expect to resume usual operations. And it typically includes:

• Strategies to recover business activities in the quickest practicable time frame
• Key resources (including equipment and staff) required to recover operations
• Recovery time objectives
• A checklist of tactics^xi

Of course, successful recovery plans are more than mere checklists of activities. Developing effective recovery strategies and tasks requires businesses to have first identified and prioritized their essential functions and the resources necessary to keep those functions going in the business continuity plan (BCP). 

Part of that original BCP effort is fully understanding the context of the business, i.e. its operating environment. Those findings only become more relevant for Covid-19 recovery planning, as most operating environments (internal changes plus the impact of new external restrictions) have shifted dramatically due to the pandemic (more on external restrictions below).

Business continuity management lessons learned from September 11

Your business will be operating under the rules and regulations set out by your jurisdiction and relevant health authorities (local, state, and federal). Throughout the Covid-19 crisis, those directives have changed often and are likely to continue to evolve frequently. And so, situational awareness of those measures is key. 

Jurisdictions are likely to take a phased approach to easing up on stay-at-home orders, rather than eliminating them all at once. Once those restrictions no longer apply, though, a resurgence of the coronavirus might trigger new closures.

Jurisdictions have also put out guidance on what constitutes safe reopening for businesses, for which your plan should account. It will be the employer’s responsibility to heed that guidance – part of the employer’s broader duty of care obligation to provide a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm – which will likely include consideration of the following:

• Screening and testing
• Social distancing
• Use of personal protective equipment (masks and gloves)
• Protocols for addressing reports of COVID-19 positive exposure

Indeed, organizations will outline new recovery strategies, or back-up plans, within the broader context of the changed operating environment, with an assessment of damages^xii helping businesses to make more informed decisions on how to restore functions to normal working order.

Executing those recovery strategies necessitates completing tasks or sets of “specific actions or activities taken to accomplish the strategy… [which] serve as checklists that guide your recovery actions and are organized by required resources – people, places, and things.”^xiii

There’s more. When outlining tasks, specificity matters. Tasks need to be sufficiently detailed (but still widely comprehensible) in order to be helpful; consider the requisite steps, required resources, and key contacts needed to complete a given task.

Four essentials actions for Covid-19 recovery

The Covid-19 crisis has created a unique, unprecedented environment for business, made all the more difficult to generalize because of differential impacts, due to geography, industry, resource availability, etc.

Differences aside, recovery for many will mean implementing actions never countenanced before. So, what specific actions should organizations take to rebuild and restore? These four essential actions for Covid-19 recovery come to mind:

1. Bringing facilities back up to safe-working order.
   For many, full business recovery will require a return to vacated worksites. But most regulators are requiring enhanced cleaning and disinfection of work premises before staff can return on site. 
   
   Not just that, organizations will have to account for the likelihood that once back on site, workers will test positive with Covid-19. In that eventuality, employers should be ready to once again vacate the premises and allow for another round of deep cleaning. Jurisdictions might even mandate these enhanced cleanings and disinfections after persons who have entered the facility are suspected of or confirmed to have Covid-19. 
   
   Even before employees test positive, your recovery plan should provide concrete actions, like routine environmental cleaning and disinfection, to maintain a safe working environment for employees. Per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, further actions might include:
   
     • Regularly clean and disinfect all frequently touched surfaces in the workplace, such as workstations, keyboards, telephones, handrails, and doorknobs.
       – Dirty surfaces should be cleaned using detergent or soap and water prior to disinfection using products certified for use against the novel coronavirus.
     • Discourage workers from using other workers’ phones, desks, offices, or other work tools and equipment, when possible. If necessary, clean and disinfect them before and after use.
     •  Provide disposable wipes to ensure commonly used surfaces remain clean.
2. Make a determination on who will come back to work to effect recovery.
   It might be ill-advised to bring the entire workforce back to work all at once. For one, social distance will have to be maintained in facilities not set up for social distancing (i.e. open floor-plan office). A more gradual return will also allow for more employees to get tested for Covid-19 and/or to fill out assessments as to whether they are suffering any symptoms of the virus^xiv.
   
   If organizations opt to stagger re-entry as part of the recovery process, they will need to determine which group of workers will return first – typically, employees whose roles are more reliant on on premise resources. Covid-19 high-risk condition tracking might also be helpful to determine who comes back to work and when.
   
   Another wrinkle from a continuity of operations perspective: it might not make sense to reintroduce whole functions back to the office at once. Instead, organizations might consider segmenting teams (e.g. A and B) as a suitable action, then reintroducing those segmented teams in stages (e.g. one set per week) or in different shifts (e.g. team A in the morning and team B in the afternoon) for a certain period of time. It might also be advisable to intersperse these re-introductions with further deep cleanings of the facilities.
3. Plan frequent communications.
   Communication will matter during the recovery stage, just like in all other crisis scenarios when employee fear and anxiety will be high. 
   
   To avoid rumors and misinformation proliferating, recovery plans should lay out actions to keep everyone (including partners, customers, and third-party contractors) on the same page and supplied with high-quality information. The communication effort will likely start with sharing the decision to bring employees back to work (well ahead of time) and the measures planned to ensure a safe workplace. Other actions might include:
   
   Communicate to and educate employees
     • Develop and disseminate programs and materials covering Covid-19 safety fundamentals, personal and family protection, and response strategies – or share existing resources from high-quality sources
     • Ensure that communications are culturally and linguistically appropriate
     • Disseminate information to employees about your back-to-work plan
     • Provide information for sick leave policies, in accordance with changing statutes
     • Place posters that encourage appropriate hand hygiene in workplace areas where they are likely to be seen
     • Share relevant sources on coughing and sneezing etiquette and clean hands for more information
   
   Create an emergency communications system
     • Disseminate your back-to-work plan to all employees and stakeholders well in advance, including expected roles/actions for employees and other stakeholders
     • Maintain current contact information for staff, ancillary personnel, clients, and other stakeholders in a single source of truth
     • Establish a system to account for employee health and work status
4. Take action to protect health and safety.
   The bulk of Covid-19 recovery planning will consist of devising and implementing measures to protect the workforce once they have come back. Those measures will take various forms.
   
   As mentioned, many measures will be mandated by relevant health authorities – so constant access to best-practice guidelines (WHO, OSHA, CDC) for safe workplaces is necessary. Many of the stipulated actions, there, concern hygiene, distancing, and wellness monitoring protocols. 
   
   Indeed, local health authorities are likely to have already recommended a set of actions, such as avoiding large gatherings and maintaining distance (which will mean closing down communal spaces like breakrooms and cafeterias). As an alternative to work-related mass gatherings, companies might consider video and teleconferencing – or when those alternatives aren’t practicable, holding meetings in open, well-ventilated spaces as suitable actions. 
   
   Companies might also consider handing out personal protective equipment (like respiratory or fabric masks) to employees, in which case they should monitor their stocks 
   – the CDC provides a burn-rate calculator which should be part of the recovery toolkit. Other potential safe work actions include:
   
   Promote distancing
     • Continuing telework for employees who can work remotely without loss of productivity
     • Implementing staggered shifts
     • Increasing physical space between employees and customers in person-to-person industries
     • Implementing remote delivery and drop-off, if possible
     • Downsizing physical operations
   
   Support hand hygiene habits
     • Providing tissues and no-touch disposal receptacles
     • Providing adequate supplies of soap and water or alcohol-based hand sanitizer, placed in multiple locations
     • Encouraging the use of noncontact methods of greeting
     • Providing gloves
   
   Monitor and report
     • Implementing worker health surveillance protocols, like on-site temperature readings
     • Tracking screening results over time
     • Providing guidelines for positive worker tests
     • Performing welfare checks
     • Adopting simple worker contact tracing

Finally, for many, Covid-19 has represented the sternest test to business viability. Now, as the rates of infection slow, even decrease, it is understandable that organizations are keen to return back to normal as soon as possible.

But returning back to normal after a major disruption is not as simple as flipping a switch back on. Indeed, business recovery, the process that facilitates that return to the status quo, entails just as much planning and foresight as the initial mitigation and response stages. 

There is hidden risk everywhere. A well-crafted business recovery plan, however, will enable organizations to identify and control those risks, so as to support pre-crisis business requirements.

Citations

i Tyler Sonnemaker and Andy Kiersz, Business Insider: Nearly 30% of US coronavirus cases have been among people 20-44 years old, the CDC says — showing that young people are getting sick, too. Available at https://www.businessinsider.com/30-percent-us-coronavirus-cases-people-betweenages-20-44-2020-3.

ⁱⁱ Willy Shih, Forbes: Coronavirus And China Manufacturing: Why The Risk Is Far Larger Than Just Wuhan’s Factories. Available at https://www.forbes. com/sites/willyshih/2020/01/30/wuhan-coronavirus-and-china-manufacturing-this-is-going-to-hurt/#3ba2868b55fb.

ⁱⁱⁱ Erik Sherman, Fortune: 94% of the Fortune 1000 are seeing coronavirus supply chain disruptions: Report. Available at https://fortune.com/2020/02/21/fortune-1000-coronavirus-china-supply-chain-impact/.

^iv Richard Eisenberg, Forbes: Is Working From Home The Future of Work? Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2020/04/10/isworking-from-home-the-future-of-work/#3105e7a446b1.

^v Dan Kopf, Quartz: Slowly but surely, working at home is becoming more common. Available at https://qz.com/work/1392302/more-than-5-ofamericans-now-work-from-home-new-statistics-show/.

^vi Vanessa Mitchell, CMO: Report: Most Australian employees to work from home. Available at https://www.cmo.com.au/article/672072/report-mostaustralian-employees-work-from-home/.

^vii Blankrome: Covid-19 Employer Trends Survey. Available at https://www.blankrome.com/sites/default/files/2020-03/blank-rome-coronavirusemployer-trends-survey-results.pdf. 

^viii Bevaola Kusumasari, Quamrul Alam, and Kamal Siddiqui: Disaster Prevention Management: Resource capability for local government in managing disaster. Available at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Quamrul_Alam/publication/244116686_Resource_capability_for_local_government_in_ managing_disaster/links/54365ad20cf2643ab986c88b/Resource-capability-for-local-government-in-managing-disaster.pdf

^ix Mal Cronsted, Australian Journal of Emergency Management: Prevention, Preparedness, Response, Recovery – an outdated concept? Available at http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.468.7635&rep=rep1&type=pdf.

^x Ibid. 

^xi Available at https://www.business.qld.gov.au/running-business/protecting-business/risk-management/recovery-plan

^xii Damage assessments are tools that come from the field of disaster recovery. They typically measure physical damage done to infrastructure after an emergency or natural disaster. In the case of a public health incident like the Covid-19 crisis, organizations will have other concerns besides physical damage done to physical premises. Instead, their damage assessments will most likely measure supply-chain disruption, affected worker availability, new compliance measures for work safety (e.g. distancing, ventilation, screening), etc. Much of that data will have already been collected by the Covid-19 Response team. So, it helps to be working in a single-source-of-truth system that gives your Recovery team access to all of the information collected during the active response stage. 

^xiii Available at https://emergency.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/Guide-BCP-Labs-Research-Facilities.pdf.

^xiv Alex Sherman et al., CNBC: How the biggest companies in the world are preparing to bring back their workforce. Available at https://www.cnbc. com/2020/04/09/how-businesses-are-planning-to-bring-workers-back-after-coronavirus.html