Play your cards right as we emerge from lockdown

The number one challenge facing all risk and insurance managers across Europe right now is how to help navigate their businesses out of lockdown.

This is a difficult and often confusing time for all of us, as we are generally very keen to return to ‘normal’ but at the same time are all very aware that the risk of a continent-wide second wave and subsequent need for a return to full lockdown is very real indeed.

If national governments opted for a zero-risk strategy, there would of course be no easing of the lockdown. Indeed, quite the opposite would occur. We would all be instructed to stay at home and hide away until the number of cases fell to zero.

But as we all know, this is not really an option because the economy would collapse and severe social disruption would follow.

I live in Bournemouth on the south coast of England – a popular holiday town with a 12-mile-long beautiful sandy beach. As many Commercial Risk Europe readers would have seen on the news, when UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced an easing of the lockdown, thousands and thousands of relieved Britons flocked to the beach in Bournemouth to celebrate the apparent end of the crisis.

It was madness. I have never seen the beach so full of sun-worshippers – all packed in huge groups with no social distancing. In fact, quite the opposite as the beer and wine flowed throughout the day, followed by mass fights and vandalism later in the day. It was the British at their worst; a sight that inhabitants of many Spanish holiday resorts will be all too familiar with.

The UK is of course an embarrassing anomaly within Europe. Most European citizens are rather more aware of the risks associated with the emergence from lockdown and are playing a more careful game. Most European governments have also adopted a controlled and clear exit strategy and will enforce it if needed.

Risk and insurance managers need to adopt this careful and guarded European approach. Bosses will be very keen to return to normal as quickly as possible, generate as much revenue and profit as possible and pay off all that expensive debt incurred during lockdown. Many companies will be eyeing struggling competitors and looking for the chance to dominate their markets.

Risk managers do not want to play the ‘Dr No’ game of course. This would not do their reputation and career prospects a lot of good. But risk managers do need to work closely with colleagues in HR and legal and compliance in particular, to make sure that the emergence from lockdown does not bring with it risks that are too great to bear.

Employees in particular need to be carefully looked after. To force staff back to work too quickly and against their will would be a highly dangerous strategy and would inevitably backfire, bringing serious financial and reputational damage. This is a big, enterprise-wide, risk management challenge and one that offers a real chance for the profession to show the value that it can bring. Play your cards right now and you shall reap the rewards in future.