NEWS

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Business Continuity During COVID-19

BACKGROUND

In early 2020, public health agencies identified a rapidly spreading global outbreak of COVID-19. Because the virus spread through person-to-person contact, governments put stay-at-home measures in place for citizens. These measures challenged businesses to keep operations running smoothly while ensuring employee safety.

OBJECTIVE

SEBPO’s objectives were to provide a safe working environment, adhere to pandemic guidelines, and provide flexibility and continued support to clients. To meet these objectives, SEBPO initiated its Business Continuity Plan, daily emergency response meetings, and increased monitoring and communication for SEBPO teams. These measures allowed for efficient planning, preparation and response to the pandemic.

RESULTS

SEBPO acted as a strategic partner to clients, with the following outcomes:

• SEBPO employees in the US, Bangladesh and El Salvador pivoted to a work-from-home environment with minimal impact to our clients’ operations.
• Fifty employees in the Bangladesh delivery center volunteered to shelter-in-place at the SEBPO office, where food, sleeping, and personal hygiene arrangements were provided.
• The combination of shelter-in-place and work-from-home enabled certain teams to meet security measures as required by clients.
• Each SEBPO team’s Client Success Manager communicated changes and actions on a regular basis.
• SEBPO continued to expand services for clients by adding additional shifts and task types.
• SEBPO provided strategic operations support during times when internal employees were unavailable due to furloughs or other staff reductions.
• One client reported SEBPO as being more valuable because their employees would be offline intermittently during the next several months.

CLIENT QUOTE

“I am always so impressed by the work you do every day and these past weeks have been no exception. Working from home is a different experience and an adjustment for everyone. Some are facing the challenge of learning how to work while the whole family is home in one space. Others are facing the challenge of isolation, missing the in-person interactions with friends and coworkers. No matter your struggle I have nothing but praise for your dedication to the work we do together in this difficult time. Even more now than ever I couldn’t be prouder to work with SEBPO and the individuals on this team.”