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Coronavirus: what contingency plans are you putting in place?

Steve Bridger

We've had a discussion thread already touching on the Coronavirus (COVID-19), but things have moved on a bit and we'd like to ask members to use this space to share initiatives and plans around managing the coronavirus threat in your organisation.

Please refer to the CIPD factsheet for current guidance and also the latest information on the GOV.uk website.

The CIPD has been asked to speak on national news channels* about what businesses can be doing to manage issues affecting employees, such as flexible working, A+B teams coming into work, school closures, business travel etc.

*If you are happy to speak to the media, who are looking for real examples of businesses taking action, please let us know as we do sometimes get asked to recommend companies who could be featured. To reassure you, this is a closed thread and no-one can see it except CIPD staff and CIPD members. 

We’re well placed to help if you have any questions... and we’re interested to hear what actions you’re taking in your own organisations.

Please share below. Thanks.

UPDATE: 10th March 2020

  • in reply to Elizabeth Divver
    We have a couple of people who may be at higher risk because of health conditions. I have spoken to them individually to ask if they have been advised to take additional precautions. Both have been told to carry on as normal. I have said to them that if the medical advice changes or if they feel particularly concerned themselves (even without medical advice) then we will make alternative arrangements for them to work from home, or minimise contact with others etc.
  • in reply to Gemma
    I think Gemma that will be an impossible distinction when we get into the depths of this
  • We have a mix of remote and office workers. So far, we have offered voluntary homeworking for all office workers if they want it (I have taken this up as my immunity pretty much sucks) but at the moment the majority of our employees are still working from the office. Should things move on we will ask everyone to work from home. If schools shut, we will allow people paid time off (we support schools so wouldn't have much work when they're shut anyway).
  • We are fairly proactive with flexible working and ensure most staff have the resources to work from home. However, there are some parts of the business that can't work remotely. So need to factor this into our contingency plans. My question, if we have someone that is confirmed with Corona Virus and they have been working in the office. How long would we need to close the office to ensure we clean and re-open being sure the virus is not still on surfaces. My understanding is c48 hours, but I have not really seen any information on this anywhere. I would welcome any advice on this. Thank you
  • in reply to Angela Batt
    I think that if they are away and have symptoms, they need to contact the health authorities in the relevant country, in the same way that they would need to contact 111 if they had symptoms here. Some countries are hospitalising people who present symptoms as a matter of course, whilst others will tell people to self isolate. But you really would need to contact the health authorities in the country your employee is in and seek advice.
  • Our MD wants to do a trial run of people working from home and to limit risk of infection. We are planning to do a week of half working from home and half in the office and then swap. The issue is that not everyone has laptops, a very small number have desktops that are Macs so fairly portable but its still not ideal. Our technical team do not want employees accessing from their own home computers so this seems like the best solution. Expect it will be a pain for those having to take their computers and bring them back every other week. Are we going mad, is there a better solution such as asking for volunteers as there has been some pushback from those without laptops. And of course a health and safety issue - we can'r make them work from home if they're not set up to do so.
  • in reply to Keith
    I quite agree Keith. It was one of those discussions where it was clear it hadn't quite occurred to people yet that this may happen. We're in an area where luckily we've had very low numbers of people with the virus so I think there has only been one or two schools close and only for a couple of days which did not impact any of our staff, so for some the possibility of it happening still seems quite remote. It's definitely one of those things where it is going to need monitoring constantly and plans changing, or plan a, b, c, d....z.
  • in reply to Rachel Ann Oliver
    I think if that were to happy Rachel then PHE would be in touch and would be advising on what to do. That seems to be what's happened with the few schools that I've heard about on the news which have shut for deep cleaning.
  • in reply to Gemma
    Thank you... I understand that they will carry out a risk assessment and deal with things on a case by case basis. I think as part of our contingency plans we will plan worst case for shutting the office for 72 hours
  • I would be interested to know how manufacturing companies are dealing with shop floor staff who cannot practically work from home and would also welcome views on roles that are required to undertake maintenance/service work on customer sites (mostly hospitals).