I recall seeing footage of a tsunami wave pulling back, revealing debris on the sea floor and the rush of air as the wave came back with great force. So using that as a metaphor what can we be doing now to best prepare ourselves and our businesses for a potential ‘fast restart’. Hospitality staff will need to be recruited and possibly retrained on different style of customer service skills, cafes that are currently empty (although smart operators are refurbishing and offering food via home delivery services) will need to find casual workers some of whom may have returned to homes in other countries, airlines will need to accommodate those desperate to escape our homes, retailers will no longer be able to afford staff who display disinterest when shoppers enter their stores. The time for reviewing service level agreements with suppliers, reviewing HR policies and IR contracts to ensure fair pay, dusting off business continuity and risk management plans, putting work out to tender to accommodate tighter budgets... is now. I can’t help wondering what we will expect post COVID-19 and whether we will be kinder, more tolerant and understanding of each other when the wave of business opportunities comes back.
Preparing for the wave...