Essential resources for manufacturers during COVID-19

In a crisis situation like we’re facing right now with the COVID-19 pandemic, manufacturers have an important role to play. Society depends on our ability to continue providing food, medical supplies, and other critical goods to support our communities and healthcare workers.

To help manufacturing leaders and HR teams navigate the complexities of our current situation, I’ve gathered some key resources together into a quick reference post below:

Plant, Field and Supply Chain Operations

The U.S. National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has an excellent COVID-19 Resources summary with links to many different resources. The Employee Health and Safety section is especially useful for providing recommendations for safe operations, with links to pertinent sites from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), Environment Protection Agency (EPA) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)/Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

The NAM resource also has links to the Whitehouse COVID response site, NAM policy recommendations, state-specific sites, and disaster loan assistance for small businesses. This is a very comprehensive site worth bookmarking.

Also of use:

• The U.S. Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Guidance on Essential Infrastructure Workforce
• The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) COVID-19 site

For UK resources specific to manufacturing:

• Make UK has many useful items from FAQS to latest advice, and most can be viewed on their main page
• British Safety Council
• Cambridge University’s Institute for Manufacturing, in particular: Manufacturing and COVID-19: How you or your organisation could help
• GOV.UK Coronavirus guidance for UK businesses contains general advice for organizations

For Canadian resources specific to manufacturing:

• Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME) Coronavirus/COVID-19 Resources
• Government of Canada COVID-19 Resources for businesses
• Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) COVID-19 Help Centre

Leadership

Bob Chapman, CEO of Barry-Wehmiller, is famous for his leadership philosophies. In fact, during the 2008 financial crisis he didn’t lay off any employees. Bob is an in-demand speaker and blogger. He also co-founded a leadership institute to share the best practices of decades of running a company with others. It has particularly useful advice on leading through a crisis, including practical tools and suggestions, as well as crisis communication templates to help you put the suggestions from the site in place at your own organization.

Human Capital Management

Ceridian has its own COVID-19 Central site, which has great information on a number of crisis management and workforce topics from our thought leaders. Here are a few that are particularly helpful at the moment:

• Supporting mental health and staying connected when working remotely
• Productivity tips from a leader who's worked virtually for 16 years
• How to manage teams when working remotely

Finally, you can take advantage of your HCM system to help. Here are some suggestions:

• Redesign shifts so there is NO OVERLAP of start and end times – this will help with social distancing between shifts and allow for increased cleaning
• Schedule regular cleaning operations between and during shifts at breaks
• Explore and move to limited/touchless punches (e.g. via a mobile app)
• Leverage HCM communications capabilities when workers don’t have company email addresses
• Embed “safety moments” that outline safe operations through your learning management tools