• Business Continuity

  Resources to help you plan how your organization will recover from interruption and plan for continued critical business functions during the COVID-19 disruption.

  

   

   

  Business Continuity Management: Pandemic Planning Briefing (60 minutes) (Gartner)
  Learn 10 steps for pandemic preparedness, crisis management solutions, the power of data and analytics and how technology plays a critical role for business success in this new environment.

   

  

   

   

  Eight Steps for Designing a Coronavirus Crisis Management Plan (Compliance Week)
  Companies are having to walk a fine line between taking care to communicate necessary and important information while also preventing widespread panic. How to go about doing that effectively begins and ends with a robust crisis management plan.

  COVID-19: Implications for Business (McKinsey)
  This article is intended to provide business leaders with a perspective on the evolving situation and implications for their companies. It is updated daily as the outbreak evolves.

  A Coronavirus Strategic Plan—5 Ways To Make It Happen In A Business (Forbes)
  You can rapidly create a strategic plan that gets you through coronavirus in the short term and sets you up to thrive in the re-ordered competitive environment that will follow. Here are five ways to make it happen.

  Willis Towers Watson Survey Reveals Insurers “Holding Steady” with Employee Benefits

  Given the large negative impact COVID-19 is expected to have on the insurance industry, Willis Towers Watson decided to survey insurers might be making changes to compensation and benefits for their employees. Results from the survey indicate that insurers are taking more of a “wait and see” approach towards employee benefits, although 55% of companies said they were planning on taking action in hiring/restructuring. The survey also delves into other statistics, including how many companies plan to cover paid time off, adjustments to hourly pay, and how much communication there is about benefits and pay.

• Mental Health

  Resources to help with the mental health issues impacting employees in connection with their response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

  

   

   

  Mental Health Resilience during COVID-19 (15 minutes)(International SOS)

  4 Tips on Protecting Your Mental Health during COVID-19 (2 minutes) (World Economic Forum)
  The coronavirus pandemic is putting people’s mental health at risk. Here’s 4 ways experts advise us to help stay healthy during the pandemic.

  Keeping a Positive Focus (2 minutes)

   

  

   

   

  How can we reassure employees who are worried about the coronavirus? (SHRM)
  Some employees may be anxious and fearful about contracting the virus, bringing it home to their families, losing pay for time off and not being able to pay the bills. Along with the basic notices on what precautions the employer is taking and how employees can help stop the spread of germs in the workplace, the following tips may help reduce employee fears.

  3 Ways To Keep Employee Morale Up During The Coronavirus Outbreak (Forbes)
  Here are three ways employers can reduce panic and keep employee morale up during the coronavirus outbreak.

  8 Tips for Combating Coronavirus Anxiety When You Still Have to Do Your Job Every Day (The Muse)
  How to you keep mentally “showing up” to work?

  9 Tips for Dealing With Uncertainty & Anxiety Right Now (Center for Creative Leadership)
  Given that we can’t do much right now to make COVID-19 (and all the uncertainty that goes with it) disappear overnight, what can we do to cope with the distress we’re experiencing?

  From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

  Mental Health in the Workplace
  Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19
  Managing Anxiety & Stress

  From the World Health Organization (WHO)
  Mental Health Considerations during COVID-19 Outbreak

  Other Resources

  • National Suicide Prevention Lifeline| call 1-800-273-8255
  • Crisis Text Line| Text HOME to 741741 | 24/7 Crisis support in the US
  • Psych Hub| An online platform providing free, engaging videos about mental health, substance use, and suicide prevention
  • CredibleMind| An online platform that provides curated sets of the highest quality resources for you to explore
  • National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)| National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Updates on the Coronavirus
• Maps and Trends

  An online dashboard curating US and international data from multiple sources that tracks the spread of COVID-19 along with maps and trends in real-time. (Johns Hopkins)

• Travel Information

  

   

   

  Stay Safe Report (AHLA)
  The American Hotel & Lodging Association has released a set of health and safety guidelines outlining the best practices for the hotel industry in response to COVID-19.

Working from Home

• Communicating Virtually

  

   

   

  Lessons for Effective Virtual Teamwork (5 minutes)

  Tips for High Impact Virtual Meetings (7 minutes)

   

  

   

   

  Guide for Running an Effective Virtual Meeting (The Council)

  12 Tips For Making Your Virtual Meetings More Professional (Forbes)
  Practical tips on how you can create a memorable and professional personal brand when you’re “meeting” someone virtually.

  Best Practices for Managing Virtual Teams and Meetings (Center for Creative Leadership)
  Teams need a strategy for communicating digitally, and leaders must adapt to effectively manage their people and meetings remotely.

  Checklist for Creating Virtual Meetings (Medium)
  Creating great virtual meetings requires much of the same thoughtful pre-work you need for a great in-person meeting with some additional details. This checklist is focused on virtual meetings of any size or format.

  3 Communication Tips for Virtual Teams (CMOE)
  Here are three important rules for communication to ensure virtual teams are highly productive and focused on accomplishing their goals and building a healthy team culture.

• Cybersecurity for Employees

  4/02/20  |  Webinar: What Brokers Need to Know about Cybersecurity for their Clients

  Click here for the slide deck.

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  Spotting Coronavirus-Related Phishing Emails (RIMS)
  Amid widespread public concern and constantly evolving news about the COVID-19 pandemic, cybercriminals are finding new fodder for phishing campaigns.

  Beware the Coronavirus Email Scams (National Law Review)
  Companies should include information about cyber hygiene along with the CDC recommendations of hand washing, particularly given the potential for increased remote access to corporate IT systems.

   

  

   

   

  Internet Security Basics – 5 Lessons for Protecting Yourself Online (6 min)(Varonis)
  Learn the basics of internet security and how to stay secure.

• Staying Productive While Working Remotely

  

   

   

  How to Actually Work…When You’re Working from Home (3 min) (Harvard Business Review)
  Because boundaries are fuzzy, you could either burn out or not get anything done.

  5 Do’s and Don’ts of Working Remotely (2 min) (Inc. Magazine)
  There’s a lot more to working from home effectively than just waking up and turning on your laptop.

   

  

   

   

  Science-backed Tips for Settling into Your New Work-from-Home Routine (Fast Company)
  This may be the “new normal,” but that doesn’t mean the transition to social distancing or remote work is easy. These techniques can help.

  7 ways to make working from home easier during the coronavirus pandemic (Fortune)
  Need help navigating the work/life balance issues and figuring out how best to get your job done? Here are some ways to make it easier.

   

  

   

   

  Real-time Internet Problem & Outage Monitoring (Down Detector)
  See when your services are down or having problems.

  Knowledge Burst: Managing Your Remote Team Inclusively (Catalyst)

  Quickly get up to speed on leading remote teams inclusively. This Knowledge Burst includes a downloadable tool, Communication Charter Template for Remote Teams, to help managers and their reports establish communication norms that increase the remote team’s performance.

• Vertafore: Complimentary Access to InsurLink

  In it Together
  Through July 31st, Vertafore will offer its AMS360 and Sagitta customers free access to InsurLink, their new client portal that enables a modern, online and mobile experience for the end-insured. Their Orange Partner, Agentero, will offer its own solution to QQ customers on the same terms

Leading through a Crisis

• Communication

  

   

   

  That COVID Chart That’s Everywhere, Explained (1.5 min)(JellyVision)
  A short video that explains what “flattening the curve” really means, and how to do your part to make it happen.

   

  

   

   

  Trust and the Coronavirus (Edelman Trust)
  The most trusted source of information comes from employer communications, and 54% of employees want employers to update them about the virus every day.

  Communicating Through the Coronavirus Crisis (Harvard Business Review)
  In fast-moving and uncertain situations, many leaders face questions they may not even have answers to. You will sometimes get it right, and you will often get it wrong, but it is still better to be as transparent as you can.

• Leadership

  

   

   

  6 Strategies for Leading a Team in Crisis (4 min)

   

  

   

   

  The COVID-19 Leadership Guide (Korn Ferry)

  Korn Ferry has assembled the practical guidance and strategies you need to steer your organization through this emergency.

  Today, We Need Leaders Who Create Leaders (Wharton)
  The ability to develop the leadership potential of those on your team used to be a “nice to have” skill in your arsenal. Today, it’s a necessity.

  Leading Remote Workers: The Coronavirus’ Impact On Crisis Management (Forbes)
  Three keys to heading a newly virtual workforce —the “3 Cs of remote leadership” — that leaders can implement today, whether their organization’s shift is temporary or long lasting.

  Leadership in times of crisis – Key moments of truth (Boston Consulting Group)
  Effective leaders embrace four key behaviors of crisis leadership and use them to navigate critical “moments of truth” for their employees, enterprises, and society.

  Lead your Business through the Coronavirus Crisis (Harvard Business Review)
  Twelve lessons for responding to unfolding events, communicating, and extracting and applying learnings.

  Decision Making in Uncertain Times (McKinsey)
  The timeline for companies to react to the coronavirus has shrunk dramatically. Here are five principles that leaders can follow to make smart decisions quickly during the pandemic.

  Mission First, People Always (Korn Ferry)
  Korn Ferry CEO Gary Burnison on how during this crisis, it’s people who will be the ultimate differentiator.

Compliance & Liability Considerations

• D&O

  The global impact and rapidly evolving development of COVID-19 makes it difficult for organizations to gauge the current and future operating impact from the crisis. Government mandates – lockdowns, quarantine orders, civil authority – can immediately alter a company’s operating status and uncertainty around how the virus will continue to spread raise the question of how often companies will need to update their disclosures. More on D&O exposure here.

   

  

   

   

  Risk Managers Advised to Prepare for Coronavirus D&O (Business Insurance)

• Employment Practices Liability

  With many employers operating on policies at the employee discretion (i.e. working from home, business travel), the environment during COVID-19 could provide an easy trigger for any disciplinary action taken against an employee to result in claims of unfair employment practices.

   

  

   

   

  Is Coronavirus a Catalyst for Workplace Harassment? (Leaders Edge Magazine)

  COVID-19 and Employment Practices Liability Insurance (AIG)
  With a pandemic comes all kinds of employment practices liability (EPL) questions. Can employers require employees to stay home? Can they require employees to come into work? What about personal travel? A report by Gallagher breaks down how to address these questions and goes over provisions and exclusions relevant to EPL during this time.

• Wage & Hour Division – From Department of Labor

  The Wage and Hour Division provides information on common issues employers and employees face when responding to COVID-19, and its effects on wages and hours worked.

  Families First Coronavirus Response Act: Employer Paid Leave Requirements
  Requires certain employers to provide employees with expanded family and medical leave for specified reasons related to COVID-19.

  COVID-19 and the Fair Labor Standards Act: Questions and Answers

  COVID-19 and the Family and Medical Leave Act: Questions and Answers

• Workers Compensation

  An increase in the number of people working from home leaves concerns for new exposure for employers not accustomed to having employees in unknown and possibly unsafe working environments. What constitutes a compensable claim when working at home? Back injury due to an ergonomically unsound workstation or mental stress due to isolation? It is too early to tell what claims may arise from these situations and how courts interpret these situations.

   

  

   

   

  Coronavirus and Telecommuting: New Exposures for Employers (Business Insurance)
  With much of America’s workforce working from home in an attempt to reduce the spread of COVID-19, employers may experience an uptick in workers compensation claims.

  Impact of COVID-19 on Workers’ Comp (Insurance Thought Leadership)
  COVID-19 will affect the workers’ compensation industry well beyond claims related to the virus.