Preamble
Plan for recovery now, not later
As a black swan event, the COVID-19 crisis is impossible to predict with conventional wisdom and forecasting tools. However, there are many lessons Businesses can learn and carry forward once the crisis has passed and they’ve had a chance to analyze their response. In the meantime, Businesses should be making decisions and taking actions during crisis with recovery in mind. When the crisis is over, it will be clear which Businesses have the resilience and agility to reshape their business strategy to thrive in the future. Longer term, Businesses will need to consider how robust their business, management team and initiatives were in facing the crisis. It will also be important to consider and reset the business assumptions that underpin education and its format.
Planning and Prevention
Businesses should focus on planning and prevention with both urgency and calm. Do what you can to immediately protect staff and to cope with the changing environment and perhaps the prolonged business closures. The government has encouraged work-from-home measures and curfews as a way to stem the pandemic.
Your employees' health and well-being is paramount. Employers have a statutory duty of care for people’s health and safety at work and you should do everything in your power to support people remaining at home or taking necessary precautions.
What is COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019)?
The COVID-19 is caused by a virus belonging to a family of viruses known as coronaviruses, which can cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).
The most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, tiredness, and dry cough. Some patients may have aches and pains, nasal congestion, runny nose, sore throat, diarrhea or shortness of breath. Most people recover from the disease without needing special treatment. Older people, and those with underlying medical conditions such as high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes face higher risks of developing serious illness.
Business Continuity Plans (BCP)
Enterprises are encouraged to implement business continuity plans to minimise disruption to their operations and ensure that business remains viable during the virus outbreak. Enterprises can take the following steps to ensure adequate preparation for business continuity.
Human Resource Management
- A Business Continuity Manager should be appointed to ensure that employees are familiar with the business continuity plans and comply with them during this period. The roles and responsibilities of the Business Continuity Manager are given.
- Develop a plan for the continuity of leadership in the event of absence of key decision makers and executives.
- Consider flexible work arrangements for the high-risk employees, as well as employees who need to stay at home due to other reasons relating to the COVID-19, e.g. to take care of family members who have travelled to known affected countries or regions.
- Review employee management policies such as SHN, absenteeism, sick leave, overseas travel, workplace closure, and recall of non-critical employees and their families from affected countries.
- Adhere to all travel and health advisories issued by MOH, MOM and other government agencies. Refer to MOH and MOM websites (www.moh.gov.sg/covid-19 & www.mom.gov.sg/covid-19) for the latest updates so that an informed decision can be made on whether to proceed with business travel plans.
- Obtain health and travel declarations from employees who have travelled abroad, or who have any upcoming plans to travel overseas during the virus outbreak. These declarations must take into consideration the travel and health advisories issued by MOH, MOM and other government agencies. Employees need to inform their employers when there are updates to their overseas travel plans.
- Comply with all quarantine orders issued by MOH, MOM and other government agencies. These include all measures prescribed by MOH, MOM and other government agencies during the quarantine period. Employees placed under quarantine must not leave their designated location for any reason. Refer to MOH, MOM and other government agencies’ websites for more details.
- Adhere to all advisories issued by MOH, MOM and other government agencies relating to SHN measures. Under the SHN, returnees will have to remain in their place of residence at all times during the 14 days. Those placed on SHN should monitor their health closely, i.e. twice daily for fever and respiratory symptoms such as cough and breathlessness. They should minimise contact with others and avoid having visitors (e.g. other employees) to their residence. Employees under SHN should maintain a record of persons they come into close contact with during this period. During the 14-day SHN, employers must ensure that employees stay away from the workplace. However, employers may adopt flexible work arrangements, such as tele-commuting and tele-conferencing, to allow employees to work from home. Refer to relevant sector-specific advisories by MOH and other government agencies on arrangements for employees.
- Provide, if necessary, accommodation in Kenya for foreign workers, including foreign workers who commute to Kenya daily, during the virus outbreak. Refer to MOH, MOM and other government agencies’ websites for more details.
- Check the MOH, MOM and other government agencies’ websites for the latest advisories and requirements on travel, health, quarantine and SHN, and accommodation of foreign workers, as the situation evolves.
- Implement public health response measures, e.g. contact tracing and social distancing, as advised by the MOH, MOM and other government agencies.
- Review health insurance policies for workers.
Process and Business Functions
- Identify critical business functions (prioritised activities) and essential employees. Enterprises should consider the appropriate business continuity working arrangements to minimise disruptions to the critical business functions due to infections.
- Set up two or more teams of essential employees (e.g. Team A & Team B). The teams should be physically segregated to avoid the risk of infection between teams. This can be done through different work schedules (e.g. shifts), different work locations (e.g. sites, office areas and homes) or telecommuting arrangements. Employers may consider telecommuting arrangement for non-essential employees.
- Adhere to advisories on safe distancing measures at the workplace. These measures include employers placing their employees on work from home arrangements, where possible, especially for vulnerable employees (e.g. older employees, pregnant employees, and employees with pre-existing medical conditions) and using tele-conferencing in place of physical meetings, where possible. For job roles or functions where it is not feasible for the employee to work from home, employers should: Provide wider physical spacing (at least 1 metre apart) for workstations and seats in meeting rooms, pantries, rest areas, and other congregation points Reduce duration and proximity of physical interactions Stagger working hours Defer non-critical work events and scale down critical work events.