Europe needs to prepare now to get back to work—safely

As the coronavirus crisis has deepened, European governments have established virus-control commands and economy-protection commands, but few—if any—have a similar structure in place for exit command. The same is true for business. Most have established war rooms with teams assigned to cope with issues related to the supply chain, workforce management, and finances. But there has been less effort directed at establishing the detailed protocols that will be necessary to bring employees back to work safely. There is still little clarity, for example, on the most effective ways of ensuring compliance with the physical-distancing and other health protocols that will be necessary for everyday life and work to resume. We believe that in order to protect lives and livelihoods, Europe’s public and private sectors need to accelerate their exit planning so that they are ready to act when lockdown restrictions lift or loosen.

In this article, we describe how European policy makers and business leaders can think about how to prioritize both protecting lives and restoring livelihoods. Even in countries where lockdowns are unlikely to be lifted for several weeks, governments and companies need to be planning and preparing to restart their economies.

We start from three observations:

-Countries are working hard to establish enablers, especially testing, contact tracing, and quarantining.

-There is much to learn from what other countries are doing as they ease restrictions; it is important to think through how to adapt those efforts to the European context.

-A localized approach, down to the region or district level, is well suited to address the demand shocks that have, so far, inflicted the most hurt on Europe’s economies.

Συνέχεια ανάγνωσης  εδώ

Πηγή: mckinsey.com