Lockdowns can be deadly in nature to a business. Preparing businesses to continue working through the hardship is essential. Lockdown can happen for various reasons ranging from medical to political. The recent coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown is a good example; how businesses and supply chain is affected. If a business can continue working during lockdown safely, then there needs to be a strategy & plan in place.
Create a Lockdown Policy
If a lockdown has been declared, depending on the scenario and location of the hazard and threat it may be acceptable to allow business to work but only if it safe to do so without endangering life. If it’s not safe or no critical work or maintenance need to be done, close the business during lockdown.
Create a lockdown policy to manage the lockdown in a most efficient way. Asses, if partial or complete lockdown of the facility would be necessary as well. Prepare a protocol of the steps and action required to protect the staff, customers, other people & business when a lockdown scenario arises.
Prepare a Lockdown Contingency Plan
Being kept away from your normal business routine can be a big disappointment for many businesses either big or small. Disappointment, however, will not serve you well as in times of shutdown. But if you are able to continue working during lockdown or recovery. You will have peace of mind if you have an emergency contingency plan ready to go. It will also give staff and business owners confidence.
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You may also end up finding out that your business flourishes with the help of others. And it would be wonderful to learn that customers value you just as much as they value your products or services during times of lockdown if you can deliver.
Prioritize On Essentials To Do
You’ve heard the expression – First things first. However, during the time of lockdown your abilities are limited, your new expression should be – First things only. Other less critical tasks can wait until your business schedule is back to normal; now is the time to go over your to-do list and determine what is and isn’t essential.
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Are there tasks that others are depending on you to get done for them? The way to determine whether a task is critical or not is to think about what would happen if you didn’t do anything for a few weeks. Would anything serious happen? If not, you can forget about that task for the time being—it’s simply not that critical.
Equip Business with Technology & Tools
After your ability to work stops during a lockdown is not the time to start embracing technology solutions. You better be ready to implement technology & tools when your time and abilities are not limited. Let’s be clear here. It’s not right to sacrifice your employee safety or people dependent on your business for the sake for new business or customers during a lockdown. Respect your local governments directions and act accordingly.
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If your free to use technology and tools during a lockdown, take advantage of it. Remember that your phone & internet is an excellent communication tool. You can easily communicate customers and prospects instead of arranging face-to-face meetings. When you communicate with customers, explain the situation your business is in. Alert them if they can’t get your services or delay in delivery during the lockdown. The empathy they feel for you could strengthen your business relationship.
When you’re out of the office during this time period of lockdown, your only job is to make sure that the most essential and critical business tasks are taken care of. You will be better able to evaluate which tasks are critical if you can think clearly and have the time to make thoughtful decisions.
Outsource or Delegate your work
You must prepare to outsource or delegate critical tasks. Think now about which people you could outsource or delegate certain tasks to. You may even want to discuss these kinds of back-up plans with those people now. It is better to have chosen people out of your demographic or outside of the circle who could also be in the lockdown.
Be specific when you ask for help. You are more likely to receive it when the person you’re asking for assistance clearly understands what is expected of them. But you might get pushback, which is why now is the time to find out if they would be willing to help you should you need it later.
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