Continuity plan

Every company needs to have a disaster recovery and business continuity plan in place. This is not a new concept, but with the global emergence of the coronavirus, dubbed COVID-19, we at Waterpower felt that now was a good time to revisit those plans and ensure that our company can continue operating even in the worst-case scenario.

Dan Twomey, MD, Waterpower believes that events like this are forcing companies to be more aware of the issues they would have in a large-scale disaster.

Particularly for energy companies, we must remember that it is not just the platform or the service.  The platform and the service are part of a disaster recovery plan. Our business continuity plan is really about the people and the business processes and the infrastructure and so we are taking a more holistic view these days.  We also believe that one of the most important things to have in our business continuity plan is an internal open chain of communication. Being able to get in touch with employees not only face to face, but by text message, by phone call, or by their personal email is important.

Another important part of our chain of communication is being open with our employee base about what we are doing as a management team and where we are taking knowledge or expertise from (i.e. regular HSE updates) – those are the bases by which we make decisions and share those decisions with our Waterpower employees. We think over-communication is better at a time like this.

Waterpower’s transition to remote operations

With this particular virus, there is a lot of uncertainty due to the fact that no one knows how far it will spread and how catastrophic it will be.  Many companies nationwide, where the virus is present, have begun taking preventative measures such as telling their employees to work remotely or work from home telecommuting, in an effort to help prevent its spread.  Waterpower will mirror this flexibility to prevent any disruption or inconvenience to our customer service.  We are taking other preventative measures like reminding people about handwashing, making sure there are sanitation supplies around, and eliminating handshakes.