Managing Business Continuity in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

Almost two years since the first reported confirmed case, the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to impact people around the world. While some companies could adopt a work from home strategy to cope, manufacturing companies did not have such a choice. Subject to government regulations and possible closures to curb the spread of COVID-19, manufacturing companies need to find ways to mitigate risks and continue operating. This chapter shares the case study of how a framework (COVID-19PAL) helped a multi-national manufacturing company of 29,000 employees situated in Thailand deal with a high number of infections and continue to operate safely. The COVID-19PAL framework draws from different disciplines (such as epidemiology, physics, mathematical modeling, sociology, and social psychology) and provides necessary information for human resource professionals to be effective in dealing with a pandemic. This chapter thus fills an existing gap in literature, assisting human resource professionals, organization leaders, and employees to understand what the situation meant.