As of this morning, there is no indication yet if Malaysia’s MCO will be extended beyond 12th May 2020. If anything, with the 1st May 2020 announcement by the Prime Minister where all businesses are allowed to be open from 4th May 2020 (subject to the SOPs provided by the ministries), there is added pressure/incentive for a company to re-open its business in a “new normal” environment where the Covid19 vaccine has not yet been found.

This distributes the responsibility of managing the virus to companies and their staff as a new layer of front liners. Companies, particularly their Human Resources / Corporate Services Department, must now lead the development of how the business is to operate in this environment.

To that end, I have developed an overarching to-do list to help companies plan for this transition where there is an easing of the Lockdown:

1) Start with the SOPs for your industry/company

Review all possible applicable SOPs for your company. Don’t assume you only need to follow one SOP.

For example, just because you are a manufacturing company, this doesn’t mean that only the Ministry of International Trade and Industry’s SOPs apply. The Ministry of Human Resources’ SOP covers the governance of staff quarters, so if you are housing staff, there are additional SOPs to adhere to as well.

Why am I starting with the SOPs? Simple. With the existence of these SOPs, there is now a real legal risk of you being sued either by your staff or your clients if you don’t follow them, especially if they become infected with the virus due to your negligence.

Companies need to treat these SOPs as the bare minimum to adhere to. Where possible, improve them further to show you have discharged your duty. This will go a long way to protect your company from possible suits.

2) Assess your business operations and identify what really requires staff presence

This assessment of the operations needs to be driven by three factors:

1. Business need: The actual need for the staff to be on site and the minimum number of staff that needs to be on site.
2. Staff circumstances: e.g. distance to office, method of transportation (i.e. public transport means higher risk), availability of childcare services, etc.
3. Safety considerations & SOP restrictions (if any).

Do conduct this assessment with feedback from your HODs as they are the ones who can realistically explain what would be needed for their operations.

This will allow you to limit the number of staff in the office/business premise. If this MCO period has proven anything, it is that not all meetings need to happen face-to-face and that people can be trusted to work from home. If your experience with work-from-home has been less then ideal, read on as I have a few tips on this below.

3) Develop guidelines/protocols based on likely scenarios that the staff face so that they know what to expect and do. I have listed some of the more basic scenarios and suggestions below:

Premise Entry & Management:

Ensure the staff knows what to do when a client, visitor or even parcels show up in the premises. In most cases, SOPs have listed out for there to be temperature checks, recording of visitor details, etc. List them out in a flowchart/checklist for the staff to implement.

Have self-check procedures for staff before coming to the premises. For example, set health temperature guidelines. No more rewarding the “I am sick, but I still choose to come to work” behaviour.

Have travel precautions to take to the premises. This can as simple as having sanitisation materials available and having staff wash their hands before being allowed in the premise. You can also go as complicated as public transportation travel guidelines.

For essential staff stuck in other states, you should assist them in getting back to the state where the premise is located. Provide them support in understanding the Gerak Malaysia App, the inter-state travel SOPs, and the necessary supporting documents.

Premise Interactions:

Have guidelines on the usage of common spaces and interaction between staff. Where possible, limit the number of meetings and practice social distancing in necessary meetings.

Work from Home Staff:

Lay out the general obligations and expectations for staff who are working from home, e.g. availability and contact-ability in certain set hours.

Prepare work efficiency best practices as a form of advice to supervisors. For example, my firm had required supervisors to set clear deliverables with deadlines for the employees to deliver. Subsequently, each employee had to WhatsApp their intended activities at the start of the day and the outcome to those activities at the end of the day to their supervisor. This helps keep discipline and forces the employee to plan out their day. Since there are the deadlines, its tough for the employee to write fluffy things all the time and this minimises the risk of last-minute work.

Engaging Clients Outside the Office/Business Premise:

In the event that the staff must meet clients or attend meetings outside of the office, set travel precautions, interaction tips etc. for the staff to use to manage the expectations of the receiving person. This will go a long way to protecting your staff.

Internal Accountability Mechanism

There is a real risk that notwithstanding the guidelines developed, they will not be adhered to by the staff or their supervisors.

Companies should develop an internal accountability mechanism where the staff can complain and that there is a relevant department to investigate and take action.

Better action taken by your company than by the government.

Covid19 Positive Case Detected:

List out what will happen in the event that the premise or a person/staff has a Covid19 positive case detected. This will help limit confusion and panic of safety within the company if and when it occurs.

Assess whether or not you can afford to re-open and how many times you can do so if a positive case occurs.

If you can, allocate funds for where it can potentially happen. E.g., sanitisation exercises, medical fees for staff who gets the virus (since SOPs indicate that it’s for the employer to bear) and the like. This is so that the down time can be kept to a minimum.

It may be worth checking with insurance companies to see if they can offer a Covid19 package.

This is a bit out of topic, but do note that just because the Government says you can open, it doesn’t mean you should. Plan it out properly against the compliance cost vs the expected revenue to generate vs the current operating costs vs how much cash the company can afford to burn before it can potentially become unsustainable.

Kindly note the following:

Companies need to conduct assessments based on how their business operates to determine what guidelines to develop.

How complicated those guidelines must be should be based on the operations scale and how easy/difficult it is for the staff to implement them.

Try not to over-do it as well. Pick and choose the more relevant ones that need to be implemented.

Consider getting a medical point of view of the guidelines developed to further ensure those steps are actually effective (credit to Kevin Ng Rong Xiang for making me realise this).

4) Staff engagement and communication

If the recent push back on the conditional MCO has demonstrated anything, it is that communication and engagement is important.

It is not enough to have a plan and implement it. It must also be communicated well. Consider having set frequent update emails to the staff, feedback sessions/time for them to comment on the guidelines, etc.

The communication messaging must also show that the company really is trying to protect itself by protecting its people. This is especially key in companies where cost cutting measures has been implemented.

If this is done right, the company stands to gain more loyalty from its staff.

 5) Review of internal processes

To deliver additional value to your management, the departments can also use this crisis as an opportunity to review internal outdated processes with the Corporate Services involved.

This is especially true for embracing options like digital archiving, online marketing, digital applications process, permanent work from home options, feasibility of scaling down the office size (to reduce rental or even just a redesign to accommodate a permanent work from home solution i.e. more meeting rooms and hot desking) and the like.

These options will enhance your business operations efficiency and hopefully help you weather the Covid19 storm longer than others.

These are just some basic ideas to consider. I welcome any feedback or discussion on these items.

The nature of the battle against Covid19 has now changed. The responsibility of companies and the people in helping the Government combat the virus is now heavier than simply staying at home. To win this fight against the virus beyond the MCO, we all need to do our part to help create a sense of discipline and caution amongst ourselves and the people around us. Let’s all do our part to save lives and livelihoods. #KitaJagaKita