By now, however good, bad or non-existent your organisation’s pandemic planning was in mid-March, if you are still trading, your plan has done its job!
From an operational lead’s perspective, while these are still relatively fresh in your mind, it is a good idea to set time aside on a regular basis to keep a record of what issues have arisen and what decisions were taken to smooth your remote-working plans as they were put into action. An example issues/decision log is available here.
These logs will help you refine your operational resilience plans. While we all hope that we will not see another global pandemic in our lifetimes, if you are successfully navigating the challenges we are currently experiencing, snow days should never be an issue again! It is also an opportunity to evaluate your future ways of working and how to put your people first.
The issues and decisions you have made could run from the micro, e.g. the payment of an expense allowance because you can’t review paper receipts or your payroll clerk doesn’t have WIFI,- right through to the macro, e.g. if your IT solutions don’t facilitate easy remote working, you may want to prioritise investment in electronic filing or a remote access platform. Don’t forget to include positive decisions and outcomes. For example, if the weekly team quiz is really well received, you may want to keep it up when you are back in the office. It is also a good idea to encourage your staff to capture a similar log for themselves to evaluate what worked and what hasn’t. These can feed into the wider organisation’s review but will also provide great insight if you are reviewing ways to improve your organisation’s talent acquisition and retention proposition, identify training needs or even just keep your teams motivated.
It can also give you an insight into what motivates your employees, beyond financial rewards, and promote their wellbeing and work satisfaction. Understanding what resonates best with your people will magnify the impact of any workplace changes.
You are also probably beginning to consider your 3-6 month recovery plan – what activities got de-prioritised while the focus has been on keeping the wheels turning? Has there been any customer or regulatory impact and when and how will you pick those backlog items up?
r10’s operational and system project delivery capabilities help our clients’ businesses to recover, plan and improve. Get in touch if you would like to find out more details.