With the current outbreak ofcoronavirusthroughout China,businesses are having to consider how to effectively utilize their employees under the situation where physical contact between individuals is beingrestrictedto a very high degree.The gathering of large numbers of staff in offices should be avoided as much as possible,both in terms of infection risks,as well as because many staff have to rely on heavily restricted public transport to reach the office.It is in public environments where the risk of infection is highest.Your business needs to mitigate against having staff travel,if at all possible,during this time.

Similarly,other traditional methods of business operation like utilization of express mail for delivery of important documents cannot function under current situations.Such services have been shut down because both the physical documents themselves and those workers carrying such documents can be a cause of potential contamination.Sending staff to supplier factories to implement quality assurance work also becomes impractical under the restrictions put in place.

In short,most options for the standard operation of businesses using traditional methodologies are temporarily closed.The options that remain open rely on“remote”operations.These methodologies only require the transmission of data through cables/ WiFi– something that at least the current coronavirus cannot take advantage of.There are of course other dangers and problems relating to over-reliance on digital communications,particularly for organizations that have not put in place a robust Business Continuity Plan(BCP).

In this article,we outline some options and advice that specifically relate to the Chinese business environment.Considerations should focus on the short-term situation(the coming two to three weeks when employees may be restricted to their apartments while the incubation period for this virus passes)and the medium-term situation.

For the forthcoming weeks,companies will need to rely on the corporate digital infrastructure that they have already put in place and supplement it with the other non-corporate infrastructure that exists in China,while being aware of the limitations and weaknesses of these public channels.

We can assume that there will be some acute short-term problems for companies with operations in China.Here are some simple guidelines that can be followed to mitigate the effects:

Ensure your IT staff(both overseas and in China)are available to deal with connectivity and other related issues that arise.With employees working remotely,more problems can be expected to arise.Consider paying IT resources extra to ensure they are working during the holiday period in preparation for most of your staff to commence working remotely after the end of the extended Chinese New Year.

If you have corporate communication tools that can be used effectively in China,ensure your China-based staff have sufficient guidance to use them and know that they need to be logged-on.In our experience,many companies that have these tools don’t inform their China-based staff about their full capabilities.Consider requiring employees to download the apps(Teams/ Sharepoint Online etc.)onto their mobile phones as well.

Make sure employees know that any costs incurred from corporate communications,which rely on traditional mobile telephone will be reimbursed by the company during this period.

If you have emails with large attachments,there is a good possibility that receipt may be delayed for employees in China especially if your corporate email server is located overseas.Consider separating the email message from the attachment.Try to reduce the size of the attachments or find other channels for delivery of such attachments.Note that many services,such as Dropbox etc.are blocked in mainland China.

If your employees are forced to rely on non-corporate channels,such as WeChat to communicate and share files etc.,ensure you send out some guidance to them on what kind of information may not be shared over such channels.This is an area where your internal legal resources at HQ might be required to provide input.For instance,you may have contracts in place with certain clients or vendors that restrict the sharing of certain information over non-corporate channels.Efficiency is one key consideration for your organization in the coming weeks,but data protection should also be ensured.Without such guidance,you may find that your China-based employees are sharing all sorts of documents and information via their personal WeChat accounts.

Setup a clear and regular communication schedule for senior resources during the coming weeks.This is particularly important when people are working remotely.Most modern conference call platforms include not only an online attendance option where full functionality can be enjoyed during meetings,but also a“dial-in”option for those participants who simply want voice functionality through their mobile phones.This functionality is recommended for employees that might be facing limited bandwidth issues from their residential addresses.

These above measures can at least enable your China-based employees to continue working with a reasonable degree of efficiency and security while the situation stabilizes.As that happens,your company should be considering how to deal with the medium-term impact.This is something that can’t be rushed.Business Continuity Plans need to be designed carefully before they are implemented,taking into account the nature of your business,its global requirements,as well as China-specific considerations.Once designed,appropriate hardware needs to be procured,software installed,and data migrated carefully.The process takes months,requiring close liaison between your operations teams in China(and elsewhere)and your IT resources.

Solutions should be put in place as soon as possible.This current situation should be a wake-up call to your organization that such technology is becoming increasingly important.It is not only critical in“crisis”situations,such as the current coronavirus outbreak;digital communication/ sharing tools are increasingly being considered as a replacement to the traditional office environment.For those organizations that are“ahead of the game”in this respect,this current crisis should actually provide them with a kind of competitive advantage for a period of time.