When Disaster Happens
Part 3: Pandemic

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this series, we covered how businesses can prepare for natural disasters such as earthquakes, fires, or hurricanes and man-made crises like security breaches and computer hacking. While these types of events can be highly destructive, pandemics can also cause high levels of disorder and turmoil. As we have seen with the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic can cause large numbers of deaths, long-term health impacts, and disrupt the normal functioning of businesses and society as a whole. Pandemics can forever alter our world, and in addition to human loss, our economies will also be affected. Some companies may be unable to recover and return to their pre-pandemic operations, resulting in the permanent closure of some businesses.

Specific figures regarding the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to determine. But, according to a study released in April of 2021 by economists at the Federal Reserve, the impact on small businesses wasn't as bad as what had originally been thought. However, the study states that the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the permanent closure of approximately 200,000 more U.S. businesses when compared to the historical rates of business closures. COVID-19 is not an isolated event, as pandemics have swept through societies throughout various periods of history. We can expect that more pandemics will occur. In this article, we will discuss the following topics businesses can use to prepare and better respond in the event of another pandemic:

• Stay Informed and Keep Your Employees and Customers in Mind
• Create a Response Team
• How Does the Pandemic Impact Employees' Health and Work?
• Conducting Financial Stress-Testing and Creating Contingency Plans
• Building Resiliency Into and Stabilizing the Supply Chain
• Communicate Issues with Customers
• Business to Business Collaboration and Strategizing

Stay Informed and Keep Your Employees and Customers in Mind

Stay up to date with any public health-related news regarding any new outbreaks of diseases or viruses and remain in communication with team members and employees. If a new disease pops up in the news cycle, business owners are responsible for understanding its symptoms and how it develops and spreads. Employees' activities, customer interactions, and business-to-business interactions occur under the business owner's watch. Checking in on any updates or guidelines from the CDC can help business owners stay on top of standard health protocols and give you an idea of any procedures you may need to adopt regarding an outbreak of a new disease. If a business owner operates over a large area, it's essential to understand how the disease is spreading and impacting the various regions in which the business owner operates differently. Different strategies and actions may need to be taken in different areas. It's critical to stay in good communication with your local staff as well as team members in your other regions of operation so everyone is updated on developments.

Create a Response Team

Businesses should implement a structured response team with a chain of command to implement safety protocols and any adjustments that may need to be made to operational procedures. The response team should plan how it will function if a pandemic were to occur and should work through how they would respond to different pandemic scenarios in several areas of their business. Typically, the head of the company should be the team leader and can plan out these preparations and, in the event of a pandemic, will inform managers and other staff what changes in the operation need to occur. Team managers can also inform the team leader of how their region or branch may be affected differently in a pandemic. In the event of a pandemic, they can inform the response team leader of developments in their branch or region of the company. This allows for better-informed decisions on the best course of action for that particular branch or region of the company.

How Does the Pandemic Impact Employees' Health and Work?

How does the disease impact your employees? Have they gotten sick? Is it safe for them to be at work? If so, what precautions need to be taken in the workplace? Keeping up to date with, understanding, and adapting to how the disease may impact your employees' health and ability to perform their work will be critical to dealing with a pandemic.

Conducting Financial Stress Testing and Creating Contingency Plans

Businesses should model different scenarios where their overall business revenues go down and business costs go up due to a pandemic. This analysis can give a better understanding of how a pandemic will affect a business. By pinpointing what specific factors will trigger these types of economic changes in a business or the economy as a whole, the company can get a better idea of how it will react to them financially and can create contingency plans for different scenarios. Ways to cut costs and maintain profits during a pandemic should be planned for and worked out in advance, which could reduce the economic impact of a pandemic on a business if one were to occur.

Building Resiliency into and Stabilizing the Supply Chain

Companies can build more resiliency into their supply chains by diversifying their sourcing and manufacturing networks and building relationships with many suppliers, including more local suppliers, when possible. In the event of a pandemic, regions being impacted and experiencing disruptions should be identified, including suppliers and their level of available inventory. Then, to quickly stabilize the supply chain, companies can begin to pre-book shipping space for their goods on rail and air transport lines. In addition, businesses can implement supply conservation strategies such as reducing use, reusing, and repurposing supplies.

Communicate Issues with Customers

During a pandemic, companies should communicate with customers about how their operations have been impacted. Working with customers to better adapt together to the circumstances can help businesses and consumers. Informing customers of what disruptions you are experiencing and what they can expect and offering certain concessions to customers can help retain a loyal customer base in an uncertain market.

Business to Business Collaboration and Strategizing

Your company can form business alliances with other businesses to support each other and the larger community as a whole. For example, response teams can strategize with each other on how to better navigate the challenges of a pandemic, coming up with creative solutions to difficult circumstances using the products, services, strengths, and expertise of multiple companies.

Conclusion:

By taking the time to build a pandemic response team and implementing preparatory measures such as conducting financial stress testing and analysis, creating contingency plans, building resiliency into your supply chain, and communicating with customers, your company can better handle and manage the disruptive effects that a pandemic can have on businesses.