Staying Limber: How Business Flexibility Is Key to Navigating Continued Pandemic Risks

As we approach the pandemic’s one-year anniversary, significant challenges posed by Covid-19 remain. Even with vaccine distribution underway, infections continue to spread and new variants of the virus raise doubts as to when life may return to some version of pre-pandemic normal.

For businesses, the continued uncertainty stemming from the pandemic means they must maintain a cautious flexibility toward risk management for the foreseeable future.

What that flexibility looks like will, on the whole, vary from business to business. Overarching risk management strategies may be similar across industries, but it’s critical to remember that each business is unique and has its own particular risks, circumstances, challenges and priorities. For example, all businesses want to keep tabs on updated public health mandates and guidelines in the markets they operate in, but a restaurant chain with five locations will address pandemic risks differently from an accounting firm where work can be done from home.

So, whether it’s deciding to institute a permanent work-from-home schedule or mandating vaccines for employees to return to the office, individual businesses must take into account their own unique circumstances when it comes to navigating risk management through these still-uncertain times.

Control What You Can Control

Ultimately, the best approach for businesses to take with risk management is assessing and controlling what they can control. With the daily onslaught of guidance, information and other impacts of the pandemic, that may seem an impossible task. But, regardless of the myriad external factors at play in the economy and business climate, there are a number of things within a company’s control when assessing and managing risk:

• Continue to emphasize health: Ensuring the health and safety of all company stakeholders — employees, visitors, customers, clients and others — must remain the top priority as businesses navigate the ever-changing nature of the pandemic. Businesses must stay on top of any and all local ordinances and public health mandates, including those for face coverings or other health requirements. As some states and municipalities ease restrictions and mandates, businesses may want to consider extending certain policies in their offices and locations with an eye toward what is best for the health and safety of everyone who interacts with them.
• Communicate, or enhance, employee benefits: It’s important for businesses to reiterate all current benefits and resources available to employees that can help them alleviate the stresses of the pandemic, such as telehealth options, mental health offerings, wellness programs, financial assistance or specific COVID-related health coverages. Also, businesses with the means to do so may want to consider adding benefits such as child or dependent care, paid family leave or other relevant benefits that may have a positive effect on employee well-being and productivity.
• To return to the office or not? This is a question most businesses undoubtedly have been studying for much of the past year. But as the pandemic continues, work-from-home has become a way of life for many organizations. What does the future of a business’s office space look like? Will the business move to a permanent work-from-home operation? Some hybrid of remote and in-office schedule? Keep in mind that after a year of WFH, many employees are struggling to disconnect and maintain work-life balance. As such, a return to the office or some hybrid model may be more welcomed by employees than businesses may think. Granted, there may be other hurdles, like finding adequate childcare, that makes a return to the office more challenging for parents. Additionally, if a return to the office is in the cards in some form, what will be done to keep employees healthy and safe while they work?
• Vaccine incentives or mandates: As vaccines become more readily available to more of the population, businesses must determine what role, if any, vaccinations will play in their ongoing operations. Perhaps for a business eyeing a return to the office, a companywide vaccination mandate makes sense. Or maybe offering incentives like cash bonuses or additional paid time off is a better approach. Another possibility is considering a shot clinic in the workplace, similar to flu shot days, where employers offer vaccines to their workers in-office. Such an idea may not be feasible anytime soon, but it may be worth exploring for some businesses. Each business must carefully consider its own circumstances to determine the best vaccine strategy.

As COVID-19 and new variants continue to spread, attempting to pinpoint an end to the pandemic is an impossible task. Although there’s no end in sight, businesses that stay flexible in the face of the innumerable challenges will be much better positioned to thrive once the pandemic does finally come to an end.

Will Spong is executive vice president of benefits with Lovitt & Touché, A Marsh & McLennan Agency LLC Company, where he helps clients create competitive employee benefits programs.