Many organisations have set up task teams to guide the company and HR has had to play a leading role in those processes.
In these trying and uncertain times, companies have been flying blind and pretty much playing it by ear when it comes to responding to the crisis because nobody really has any experience on how to manage people and operate a business in such an environment. What many companies are doing in response, is creating Covid-19 response teams whose role is to provide the guidance that is required.
American workplace technology company Xerox established a Covid-19 response team that meets regularly to monitor developments and closely follow the guidance and advisories from governments and public health organisations. The construction industry, for example has set up a Covid-19 Construction Rapid Response Task Team to look at the recovery of the industry post the lockdown.
Meanwhile, Vukile Property Fund appointed Dr Barry Schoub, a world-renowned virology expert in the capacity of strategic advisor to the Board on health matters related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Dr Schoub was the first Professor and Head of the Department of Virology, University of the Witwatersrand, Director of the National Institute for Virology and as the founding Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases from which he retired in April 2011.
Whatever your organisation’s situation - whether your business suffered lost revenue during the lockdown or has been overwhelmed by excess demand due to being an essential service, it is important to establish a multi-disciplinary Covid-19 team to help facilitate the return to work. This team must play the role of performing a risk assessment of the workplace to see what modifications can be made to ensure the physical safety of employees but also educating all employees about the virus, sharing resources and guidance on how to contain the illness, and establishing a comprehensive visitor screening process.
