Protecting Your Business from Viral Outbreaks

Everyone has cause to be concerned by not just the coronavirus, but also its effects on everyday lifestyles, economic well-being, and how you conduct your business. The most important first step is not to panic – it may sound cliché, but it’s true and important. The coronavirus is not the first illness that has caused global concern – we’ve experienced reasonably similar occurrences before – SARS, H1N1, bird flu – and although there were short- and long-term impacts, we responded as best we could until the threat was contained. The same is true of the coronavirus. However, the best next step is to take every precaution that can reasonably be afforded for the safety of you and your workers, as well as the well-being of your business. So, here are a few ways you can protect your business from the effects of the coronavirus.

Reduce unnecessary personal contact.

The coronavirus is spread through direct contact with the virus. If someone is infected, anything or anyone they touch is at risk of transmitting the virus. This means now is not the time for manners to take precedence over common sense, and it’s a great opportunity for us to change small behaviors to make a big difference. Instead of handshakes, encourage your employees to smile as a greeting and let people know they’re refraining from direct contact because of your organization’s commitment to taking everyone’s health seriously. Educate your employees on ways they can keep themselves better protected amongst themselves, such as reducing food or drink sharing using the same straws or cutlery, or sanitizing keyboards and other shared equipment after use. Ask them to consider additional ways they can reduce unnecessary

contact to reduce transmission of the virus.

Increase sanitation

Skin-to-skin contact is the quickest way to transmit the virus, but the things we touch can also do the same. Counters, desks, door handles, and any other commonly used items are unfortunately great vehicles to spread the virus from one person to another. Although it’s not possible to completely eliminate these risks, additional sanitation can certainly reduce its effectivity. Place sanitizing wipes for surfaces and hands strategically and generously around your business and combine these efforts with encouraging employees to use them to reduce everyone’s risk of infection.

Make your operations remote

Not all businesses have operational models that can support remote work. That’s understandable and unfortunately, it is the way it is. However, do brainstorm ways you can make certain aspects of the job remote or independently performed, if that’s a possibility at all. If your employees could perform their work remotely, but have not done so in the past, now is a great time to put the effort into an organizational transition that allows them to do so, if not regularly, at least as a contingency for events like this.

Create a business continuity plan for the future

This may not be directly helpful now, but it is a great way to make the best out of a bad situation. If you’ve found your business has been less than prepared to deal with an event such as the coronavirus, use this as an opportunity to develop a business continuity plan for other events that could disrupt our typical daily, weekly, and monthly schedules. Remote work may not be ideal all the time, but it is great to have protocols in place so you can feel confident the transition can be made quickly and effectively in the future. Or maybe for your business, implementing a better channel for urgent communications would make a big impact. Whatever the case may be, talk to your employees and gather ideas for the future, so you can feel better about reducing adverse impact to your business and your livelihood.