What seemed like an isolated disease outbreak in China has grown to a health epidemic that’s causing fear and chaos in shopping centres and news outlets around the country. Coronavirus (COVID-19) has captured the world’s attention, but what does it mean for your business?

For businesses across the world, the key focus should be preparing staff by supplying them with the right health advice, ensuring an increasingly hygienic work environment and establishing clear lines of communication. With consistent management, your business can avoid or minimise the health impacts and financial strain the virus is having on many individuals and industry sectors.

Communication is valuable in a crisis

We know that effective communication is key when it comes to managing any crisis; including those to do with the health of your staff. So that our staff know how to avoid the virus and what to do if they become infected, we’ve implemented in-house processes including the following instructional guide.

What is a coronavirus and COVID-19?

Coronaviruses can make humans and animals sick. Some coronaviruses can cause illness similar to the common cold and others can cause more serious diseases, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). This new coronavirus originated in Hubei Province, China and the disease outbreak is named COVID-19.

How is this coronavirus spread?

The coronavirus is most likely to spread from person-to-person through

 direct close contact with a person while they are infectious

 close contact with a person with a confirmed infection who coughs or sneezes, or

 touching objects or surfaces (such as door handles or tables) contaminated from a cough or sneeze from a person with a confirmed infection, and then touching your mouth or face. Most infections are only transmitted by people when they have symptoms. These can include fever, a cough, sore throat, tiredness and shortness of breath.

How can we help prevent the spread of coronavirus?

Practising good hand and sneeze/cough hygiene is the best defence against most viruses. You should:

 wash your hands frequently with soap and water, before and after eating, and after going to the toilet

 cover your cough and sneeze, dispose of tissues, and use alcohol-based hand sanitiser

 and if unwell, avoid contact with others (touching, kissing, hugging, and other intimate contact.

To mitigate the health impact of the virus, we have bought hand sanitisers for all our staff members that sit on our desks. We use it throughout the day and whenever we leave and come back into the office.

Open communication is also key when it comes to informing your clients and customers about your communication plan. It is important that you are clear what your company’s policies are, how they will work, where they will apply should any members of your staff become infected with the virus. Your goal is to minimise the impact on the work environment while supporting your staff members. Part of the communication plan should include, informing your clients if any of our staff become unwell. Make them aware that you have procedures in place to continue workflow and are dedicated to maintaining your commitment to a healthy and happy workplace.

Be Flexible

If our staff members feel even a little bit unwell, we offer them flexible work arrangements so that they can work from home. This not only reduces the risk of transmission in the office but also during their commute to and from work. With many businesses, including ours, operating from the cloud, staff members can work from home, still converse with managers and meet deadlines without stepping foot in the office.

Time to reflect on your learnings

Rather than going back to business as usual when the crisis subsides, it is important to reflect on the valuable lessons that can be learnt from this health crisis. During a crisis, organisational weaknesses can be exposed. Using this information, you can find opportunities to make improvements for your business and your staff.

Meet us for coffee, we're happy to share our knowledge and help you understand how you and your team can better manage communications in an event of a crisis

Sustainable Marketing Services is an award-winning Brisbane digital marketing agency with a long history of delivering sustainable success for our clients.

Book a complimentary meeting on 07 3446 5837 or via email us here.