Edgewood Insights

Breaking Down Covid-19…and Building Back up Again

It may be tempting to close the book on the Covid-19 pandemic just as soon as workers can exit their home office caves and resume something close to pre-pandemic life, but for resilience professionals that would be a mistake. We have learned valuable lessons, and we need to build on them in order to ensure continuity moving forward.

Late last year, DRI International released a pair of reports that deployed different means to identify key themes and lessons learned. The first report, “The Seventh Annual Global Risk and Resilience Trends Report”, shared the results of a survey-based study to quantify the trends at the global level, and the second report, “Covid-19: An Analysis of Leadership Styles and Outcomes: Multi-sector trends from January 2019 through August 2021”, produced jointly with the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative based at Harvard University (NPLI), showcased a focus group of industry leaders. A comparison of results reveals valuable insights that can help direct the industry.

The DRI Trends report was designed to obtain an understanding of the ongoing pandemic response given the development of effective vaccines, improved medications, and a wider understanding of the spread of the virus. When asked about the best decision made by their organization during the pandemic period, remote work (both planning for the investment as well as effective implementation) was the top reply chosen by 61.6% of respondents. Crisis management (speed of response, communications and follow through) was a distant second at 17.6% and dwarfed the other provided responses of health and safety (policy changes, vaccination support and doctor involvement), consistency of messaging (clarity of vision and response strategy), and compliance with expert guidance (WHO, CDC etc.). 

Unfortunately, it turned out that organizations were far better at going remote than coming back from it. A badly organized return to work topped the worst decision response at 19.9%, followed by inappropriate decisions made by human resources at 17%. The comments for this question illustrate how this happened in practice: 

• “We were instructed to return to work too soon after the first wave, before the predicted second wave started.”
• “Board had over-confidence in the suitability of following government recommended measures.”
• “Scaling back established employee benefits hurt morale badly.” 

At the start of 2022, organizations are still acutely feeling the pain of returning to work. Shaping a new, hybrid workforce and culture is a major challenge and will undoubtedly be a top priority. It is important to hear from leaders about how they are going about it and whether the experiences of the last two years are informing that approach.

The DRI/NPLI report sought to uncover more of that leadership perspective. It deployed a team of researchers to interview business continuity leaders from various industries and came away with a wealth of information, including lessons learned that span critical sectors. Over a series of conversations with key industry leaders, the following themes emerged:

• Situational awareness is crucial: The better the information you obtain quickly, the greater your ability to make the correct decisions early. 
• Get everyone on board early: Getting all stakeholders involved early in the response is vital. Empathy, encouragement, recognition, and praise are the way
  to do it. 
• Honesty, consistency, and strong corporate values: These are essential throughout every organization. They provide a platform for gaining organizational support when difficulties arise and plans need to be adjusted. 
• Communicate, communicate, communicate: Keep employees and external stakeholders aware of what is happening and why. Keep surprise to an absolute minimum. 
• Business continuity professional are key players: Make the maximum use of your business continuity specialists to consult, coordinate, and leverage added value from their contacts across the organization. 

What is striking about this list is that these conclusions are less about technical know-how than they are about the soft skills of resilience leaders. Even in a remote world, the ability to unite people and drive results by working together is invaluable. The means of doing so may have shifted, but the fundamentals are the same.

What can be learned by comparing the highlights of the two reports? Clearly, ensuring business continuity is first and foremost about the wellbeing of people. We learned that business continuity and human resources must work together very closely moving forward, including   joint strategies to support employees and other stakeholders impacted by a crisis. This is even more true during a prolonged disruption, like the pandemic, but would prove valuable in short-term responses as well.

It was also clear from the DRI Trends Report that for most sectors the pandemic response had more of a business impact than the public health crisis itself, not including government and healthcare for which public health was the top challenge. Top business interruption concerns were the closure of national borders and disruption of domestic travel, as well as government-induced work restrictions and lockdowns. Much of this was missed in the lessons learned from previous pandemics, which were overwhelmingly focused on health and safety, but should have taken a broader view. Response measures may need to change in some ways, but in others the playbook will remain the same and companies should plan accordingly. 

In a locked down world in which moving goods and people was severely restricted, business continuity demonstrated its essential value by identifying workarounds for critical processes. Business continuity professionals helped to keep businesses functioning by coordinating with various technical players such as cybersecurity and supply chain management to better address the cascading impacts of the pandemic. The ability to do this relies on the right combination of technical understanding paired with the soft skills identified in the leadership report. Individuals who can accomplish both will have a bright future.

While the next chapter in continuity and resilience will incorporate these lessons, it must also be recognized that not everyone will emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic unscathed and that losses have touched the lives of this community. The pandemic serves as a reminder that bringing vulnerability and compassion into the workplace can make it better and that there is value in reflection. One way to honor those lost is to truly learn the lessons and use them to build a more resilient future.

This article was originally published in Crisis Response Journal in 2022 here.