In late January, the first news began to break of something strange happening in China. At the time that seemed a long way away; here, it seemed, we were safe and sound. Nonetheless, the news was so shocking that it did prompt us to try to find out what exactly was happening there, and, from that basis, what preventive measures we might need to take in order to get ahead of events, because we are a firm operating around the world.

This has always been the main thrust of our approach, and it remains so now more than ever: try to preempt what might happen to us, prevent and minimize any risk, and take all possible measures to minimize the impact.

Since then, it’s been nonstop action, a roller coaster we are still riding and still don’t know when we’ll be able to get off. Everything is happening at breakneck speed,  laced with a high dose of uncertainty; we need to be ready for anything, to make decisions quickly to ensure any measure can be implemented as swiftly as possible, using all our current wherewithal and any more we might be able to garner.

Such a situation represents a paradigm shift. We need to be ready to adapt our procedures to a continually changing environment. For that reason any scrap of information is crucial, as insignificant as it may seem a priori; we also need to know how to analyze this information to enable us to act as quickly and efficiently as possible. Just as important, however, is passing on this information to keep everyone calm.

Occupational risk prevention spans more than one department. It spills over into our systems team, which has managed in record time to adapt all our systems so that the great majority of our staff are now telecommuting with no major incident. It also involves our procurement team, which has been hunting down the much-coveted PPE by land, air, and sea; our logistics team, too, together with our general services team, which are helping us to receive and handle all incoming items, including the wherewithal for all staff to telecommute as efficiently as possible. Neither should we forget our colleagues whose activity bars them from telecommuting who have to come to the office as usual, always strictly adhering to the special preventive measures set up at our facilities. Then there is our human resources team, which, in collaboration with the occupational risks prevention team, is running and coordinating this strange situation and dealing with each incident as it crops up. Last but not least are all the people who have weighed in as needed without wondering whether this fell within their scope of responsibility. In short, it is an all-round effort, involving the whole GMV team.

For that reason, now more than ever, occupational risk prevention is the work not only of a few but rather of a whole team, GMV, which is pulling together in the same direction, striving to make sure this pandemic does as little harm as possible. From the occupational risk prevention team, please accept our heartfelt thanks for your collaboration.

Author: Juana Palomino