Coronavirus creates challenge for businesses
Firms advised to begin thinking about temporary changes to structure, policies
TORONTO As Canada faces two confirmed cases of coronavirus in Ontario and one presumptive case in British Columbia, retailers and companies dealing directly with customers are making business continuity plans in preparation for a possible outbreak.
“We’re developing with our retailers some best practices so that they understand what they need to do and how they need to train their store personnel if in fact they encounter someone they believe is ill or if they have employees who are ill,” Retail Council of Canada CEO Diane Brisebois said in an interview Tuesday. The council represents more than 45,000 stores, including independent merchants, specialty chains and e-commerce retailers.
The crisis is especially challenging for smaller businesses that might not even have a business continuity plan in place, said Ali Asgary, associate director of Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation at York University in Toronto.
“They can’t do as much to control the situation,” he said. “But they can minimize the impact to themselves.”
Asgary said when it comes to companies within business hubs such as Toronto that are in daily contact with customers from all over the world, it will be more difficult for the company to control what’s happening in their workplace.
“Business continuity is not regulated, so unless a national emergency was declared, some of these regulatory measures would be difficult,” he said.
Jack Rozdilsky, associate professor at York University and expert in disaster and emergency management, said continuity plans are common for large businesses. “In the same way a city or region would have an emergency manager who would be the person who would deal with snowstorms or floods, businesses have people who function in similar roles,” he said.
Risk managers would typically help companies construct a business continuity plan that should address everything from saving lives to protecting infrastructure and regulating the core functions of a business in the middle of a crisis.
With only three presumptive cases in Canada currently, Rozdilsky said it wouldn’t be the time to implement parts of the continuity plan yet, but companies should start thinking about how they can temporarily change their business structure if the virus were to spread.
“Think about how you can spread people apart. In other words, how can people be allowed to do their job more remotely? What is the minimum staffing that you need to have physically on the worksite?” he said.
He also recommended looking into policies around sick leave and sick days.
“When employees are sick, if there’s a policy in place that discourages workers from staying at home when they’re sick because they’re worried about job security or pay, they would feel compelled to come to work because they would be penalized by management policies in place,” Rozdilsky said.
Shawn Corrigan, an emergency management professional at Ottawa-based consulting firm Calian Group Ltd said that at this stage, communication between all levels of employees is key. “Keep those situation updates regular, so you’re making sure staff are watching the emergency and know what steps might be taken,” he said.
“Getting good information to people well ahead of time will dispel the myths around public health, so review your own plan and see what the gaps are and then communicate good information from reliable sources.”
A representative from the Toronto Transit Commission said that currently no additional precautions other than “good hygiene practices” have been implemented.
“We are modifying our daily janitorial activities in stations to include wipe downs of hand rails and touch points in our public washrooms and reviewing our regular vehicle maintenance and cleaning practices.”
Rozdilsky noted that because Toronto is a global hub, the city may be more vulnerable.
“People are going outside of Toronto and coming back into the city just in the course of normal daily business. So when we have that type of interconnection, it means that a global crisis can very quickly become a local concern,” he said.