Crisis Management: HR's Role in Business Continuity in the Pharmaceutical Industry

We've seen a global-scale crisis quite recently: the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 virus had infected and killed thousands, global stock markets had fallen, all businesses were hit, and many companies were just trying to survive. 

All businesses had to develop strategies to survive this crisis, and human resource (HR) professionals played a crucial role in crisis management. This article explores why HR professionals are essential in pharmaceutical crisis management, how they can prepare for a crisis, and strategies that can be implemented in the pharmaceutical industry to manage a crisis.

But before beginning, let's address an important question:

What is crisis management?

Crisis management is how a business handles unexpected and disruptive events that can harm the business, its stakeholders or the public. Crises include natural disasters, technological failures, financial downturns, and more. Crisis management helps companies to ensure their employees and customers' safety and well-being. It also helps reduce the risk of operation and financial and reputation loss. Large, medium and small companies have to develop crisis management strategies, which is essentially the job of HR.

What is the importance of HR in pharmaceutical crisis management? What is the role of HR in ensuring business continuity during crises?

The role of HR in business continuity and crisis management is quite significant because pharmaceutical companies have to follow stringent regulatory requirements and maintain complex supply chains. HR can contribute to crisis management in the following ways:

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Communication management

HR ensures clear and consistent communication between the different levels of the organization. It informs about crisis updates and work protocol changes. Furthermore, HR oversees the development and implementing of new policies to handle crises. HR must also collaborate with public relations (PR) teams that handle external stakeholders (customers, media, patients, and clinical trial volunteers).

Compliance and legal obligations

HR ensures all employee-related decisions comply with labour laws and industry-specific regulations. HR must also maintain accurate records of these decisions to ensure they have proper documentation to refer to in case of future challenges.

Workforce management

HR creates and implements business continuity plans, e.g., creating shift schedules, implementing production schedule changes, and migrating to remote work. HR also managed staffing levels by recruiting or reallocating workers or adjusting working hours.

Employee support

HR provides resources to employees to help them cope with stress during the crisis. These resources include counselling services, wellness programs, etc. HR also ensures all health and safety protocols are followed, such as PPE equipment, on-site checks, crisis training, emergency protocols, and evacuation protocols. 

Recovery planning

HR departments must conduct post-crisis reviews and develop recovery plans to restore normal operations. This process generally includes gathering feedback, implementing lessons learned, developing future crisis management plans, and helping employees transition into post-crisis operations.

How do we prepare for crises in the pharmaceutical industry? Crisis management strategies in the pharmaceutical industry

Conduct risk identification and assessment.

HR professionals or risk assessment analysts should identify a potential crisis specific to the company or industry, such as supply chain disruptions, regulatory issues, and data breaches. Next, they should evaluate the likelihood and potential impact of the crisis on the company. The focus should be on high-impact crises that can disrupt operations, cause product loss, or decrease brand image.

Develop a crisis management plan.

Through a thorough analysis, HR can identify the risks and scenarios. Appropriate plans should be taken to handle individual scenarios. For example, communication plans should be developed to determine how to handle internal and external communication. Furthermore, a decision-making framework should be established. A crisis management team with representatives from all departments can also be assigned roles.

Conduct training and drills.

Once a crisis management plan has been established, HR should create training schedules for these plans. All employees should know their roles during a crisis. HR should also obtain feedback after each training or drill session to identify potential problems in the current plans. Participant feedback can help identify flaws in the plan, which can then be addressed.

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Conduct business continuity planning.

A business continuity plan should highlight how the company can restore all the primary and critical operations during a crisis. This plan should outline remote work strategies and possible shift schedules that can be implemented immediately.

Design a crisis communication strategy.

HR should oversee a crisis communication strategy. This includes creating messaging templates that can be used to communicate crisis-related information to all employees. HR should identify critical questions, queries or problems employees may have and develop communication templates that address these. This ensures the company's quick response.

Focus on providing resources.

Another primary role of HR in crisis management is employee well-being and support. Employees often reach out to HR to address their mental health concerns due to pressure or stress caused by a crisis. In such scenarios, HR should be able to provide support and resources. For example, wellness days and counselling should be provided. HR should have well-defined protocols on how to address employee wellbeing. If necessary, HR should also offer flexible work arrangements for which preparation is needed.

Address employee engagement and morale.

HR should contact employees during a crisis to gauge their engagement and morale. They should recognise and support employees who need help and those who go above and beyond to help others or the company during a crisis. This recognition and subsequent steps can encourage a positive response and boost employee morale.

As we wrap up this discussion, I underscore that Pharmaceutical companies are especially vulnerable to crises because they must follow stringent regulatory requirements, juggle various stakeholders, and manage complex supply chains across multiple regions. 

Consequently, crisis management is a crucial aspect of any pharmaceutical business. HR professionals are the first responders in any company to a crisis. They are tasked with developing and implementing appropriate crisis management plans and processes and collaborating with internal and external stakeholders. A good crisis management plan can reduce the long-term impact of a crisis and ensure business continuity. As this article has highlighted, crisis management strategies are relatively simple but should be implemented early to ensure success.

FAQs

1. Why is effective crisis management important?

Effective crisis management on behalf of HR is important because it prevents the disruption of daily operations, maintains employee morale, ensures business continuity, and reduces legal and financial repercussions.

2. How can HR prepare for a crisis beforehand?

HR professionals or departments can prepare for a crisis by conducting assessments, developing response plans, and training employees on crisis plans. These should be implemented step-wise to ensure all stakeholders and employees are prepared to handle a crisis.

3. What are the disadvantages of neglecting crisis management?

Poor crisis management can have severe short-term and long-term effects on the business. For example, it can cause disruptions in day-to-day operations, which may reduce productivity and production capacity, hence decreasing sales or product quality, which leads to long-term consequences like market capitalization and brand reputation loss.