Smiths Group established a crisis process with a Crisis Core Team based in London (but working remotely), comprised of Legal, HR, Investor Relations, Finance, Communications and HSE.  The group met three to four times per week and brought in representation from their five operating divisions: Smiths Detection, Smiths Medical, Smiths Interconnect, John Crane, Flex Tek and Smiths Group.  The team quickly added Corporate Affairs representatives, as they realized that those teams were instrumental in securing essential business status to remain operational.

The Crisis Core Team frequently interacted with the Executive Committee, CEO, Board of Directors, and the divisional crisis teams.  They found adhering to this structure really helped in the decision-making and communication processes.  The company also engaged the services of a medical doctor to advise and guide them when needed.

The Crisis Core Team also found value in its alignment with ProcessMAP, as Smiths Group developed an internal operating dashboard utilizing data from the ProcessMAP platform to feed into their own HSE management system.  They soon expanded the breadth of this data distribution to include business continuity, supply chain information and to track absenteeism. According to Tim McGraw, this helped the HSE team to partner with Human Resources, Supply Chain and Operations, using their ProcessMAP tool to track their data.

Smiths Group has created a toolkit for managers, providing them with a library to draw from to share information on a number of topics, including masks and PPE, temperature screening, disinfections, risk assessments and compliance information for them to access on short notice including anywhere, anytime through their innovative Smiths Now smartphone colleague app.

“The team has also created guidance for managers on what to do if they have a positive case.  This all gets entered into ProcessMAP, our HSE database,” added McGraw.  “We go through the various elements of a confirmed case, a suspected case, what to do, who to contact.  This guidance has been quite helpful for our locations as they have managed their way through this pandemic.” 

This blog is a part of a new series of curated content that ProcessMAP is sharing with the larger EHS community, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch this space for our next blog! To read our previous blog in this series, Click Here! Share your thoughts and perspectives, in the comments section below, on how are you managing the impact of COVID-19 at your workplace.