Five Key Post COVID-19 Business Safety and Compliance Lessons

Black swan events like the COVID-19 pandemic can be the ultimate stress test for any business. It can also serve as an ideal launchpad to build the foundations of resiliency.

While taking the leap can be challenging, in the end it boils down to thinking futuristically and taking the right decisions during the crisis.

For instance, businesses that opted to set up new tiers of suppliers and contractors, have opened themselves to new opportunities they could use after the pandemic as the business environment recuperates. The lessons learned will stay with them, allowing them to sustain operations during other future disasters.

Lessons about safety and compliance can also be instrumental in ensuring business continuity and profitability. Here are five lessons on safety and compliance for organizations that will become a new normal post-COVID.

1. Worker Health Management

With social distancing and sanitization norms in place, it will not be as straightforward for workers to resume work in their worksites as the fear of contagion will still be prevalent for months and potentially years. A key learning for employers is to adopt stringent safety rules and keep stock of sanitization products onsite to prevent any illness.

Working from home will also become regular for office-based workers as many organizations have already established remote working infrastructure to ensure that workers remain productive. It will be apt for employers post-crisis to ensure that all the workers undergo health check-ups regularly.

2. Crisis Management Training

While safety and compliance training programs are usually a part of worker management, the post-pandemic world has also raised the importance of training workers and their contractors on crisis management. Along with safety and compliance qualification, employers need to check contractor preparedness for their response to natural disasters and epidemics.

Training will become a vital component for employers in ensuring smooth and safe operations going forward. Imparting the training instruction effectively using cloud-based training platforms like eWebOQ’ can be the key to ensuring effective worker management that raises the overall bar for operational efficiency.

3. Supply Chain Mapping

While resuming operations, companies have to ensure that they have complete visibility of their supply chains. They need to start identifying key suppliers on the basis of both criticality and spend.

Further they should implement correct KPIs and governance measures to track their activities on a real-time basis. It is also important for them to map complex supply chain networks beyond tier 1 as their performance can also directly impact the hiring organization

4. Cybersecurity Compliance

With automation on the rise, most businesses in a post COVID world will use software-defined networks and advanced data analytics platforms to enhance supply chain decision-making. While leveraging technology is a great move, the flipside of it is that it comes with the risk of cyberattacks and data thefts.

For this reason, employers will need stronger cybersecurity management systems than ever before. Prequalified system integrators and solution providers hold the key to ensuring cybersecurity compliance and protection from vulnerabilities.

5. The Force Majeure Clause

As the outbreak led many organizations to temporarily close down operations, it directly affected contractors and subcontractors. Those with a carefully drafted Force Majeure clause in their contract were able to successfully prevent legal issues.

The pandemic has taught all companies to ensure that their contracts include the force majeure declaration to excuse the parties from performing their obligations during extraordinary events like an outbreak, acts of God, or the government.

Nobody can predict when the COVID-19 pandemic will end, but organizations’ constant efforts to stay prepared will help ensure worker safety when businesses resume normal operations from workplaces. These lessons will not only help them embrace the new normal but also sustain their business in the long term.

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