Learnings From The First Wave

Pradeep Lala, MD & CEO, Embassy Services on the five learnings from the last year aiding better preparedness in the second wave

As professionals from the facility management sector, the past year has been all about evolving and adapting to everchanging ambiguities.

While the initial days of the pandemic and the nation-wide lockdown left most of us in the midst of uncertainty, through the year there is so much we have learnt, foreseeably for a better and more sustainable modus operandi.

On a personal scale in tangent with the general public, the experience over the year is surely subjective and diverse on the whole.

For now, let’s look at the five key learnings which are specific to the field of facility management and service delivery on this front.

1. Risk Management: RM in the pre-pandemic era aligned with aspects of fire & safety, EHS, Medical emergency, theft, etc. However today it requires a detailed module on crisis/emergency response at par with that of a global pandemic.

We learnt that exigency plans specially targeted at reducing impact and footprint caused by one that has contracted a sickness is most critical.

This was done through contact tracing (bolstered by the use of AI recognition and surveillance devices), creation of isolation wards, readily equipped and designated personnel to support transition, liaising with local hospitals and govt. authorities through preset communications channels, redesigning of workspaces, social distancing demarcations - all of which are part of the SOPs that direct RM today.