COVID-19: Keeping the wheels of business turning locally

Across the world, companies are facing unprecedented business interruption challenges as a result of COVID-19.

Robust business continuity programmes should be driven from a strong central policy and framework. But this does not mean that your UK operations should not be assessing the risk at a local level and taking appropriate steps to maintain continuity of service at a site or hub.

Even companies that have made significant investments in their business continuity should review and test this in light of the pandemic. The coronavirus presents a potentially different threat event – impacting a business in numerous concurrent ways and potentially limiting options around recovery if other businesses are also affected, or there are logistical limitations.

We advise your local operations to continue to think of business continuity as a phased response

• short-term emergency response (to limit impact on the health of employees or the public). The strategy for this will probably be set centrally, but your response needs to be a local one
• crisis management (to ensure key stakeholders retain confidence in the ongoing viability of the company). Depending on the stakeholders, some of this activity will be run from the corporate HQ, but there will be a requirement for the management of local employees, customers, regulators and the media
• business recovery (enabling the most important, value generating parts of the company to recover, as quickly as possible). What can you do to protect your organisation against the threat of infectious disease?

An important consideration at a local level will be the implications to any local supply chains. It is important to think widely on the issue; is there exposure in the second or third tier of your supply chain, not just your immediate suppliers? Does the risk present itself, not just in the availability of materials, but in sourcing, logistics or even impact on short term consumer sentiment, where products have been sourced from an impacted region? How well risk managed are you – do you have a plan B for your most critical, strategic suppliers? Do your contracts protect you from liability to your customers, or could your suppliers point to force majeure clauses in their contracts with you?

Your central corporate team will be owning some of these questions and should be sending out frequent support and advice. But it would be advisable for you to understand and agree with them where your responsibilities sit as a UK business, and set to work on reviewing your existing arrangements for business continuity.

Our team is standing by to support you. Email [email protected] with your questions, and we will get back to you within 10 working days