The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed the business environment for all of us. Now more than ever, RANE's ability to provide unbiased insights and access to world-class expertise is helping our clients ensure business continuity and make informed decisions.

For some workers, like first responders, health care providers and delivery services, work never actually stopped during the shutdown. Major corporations and companies of all sizes turned to RANE for valuable insight and best practices on how to stay open amid an unprecedented business environment.

During this period, RANE heavily engaged with our global network of leading medical and healthcare experts to support their immediate risk management needs and commercial activities.

Now as more businesses prepare to re-open, RANE’s Ben West writes, "reopening timelines and criteria vary country-by-country and even by region within federalized countries, such as the United States. Some states like Texas are pushing ahead with reopening even as the number of new daily cases is rising, showing a willingness to tolerate a greater risk of worsening outbreaks for a degree of economic relief."

West said, "If the shutdown process in March and April seemed chaotic and disorganized, the reopening process will be even more jumbled."

Businesses, schools, and other industries can still access safety guidelines by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As the economy slowly restarts, it's looking likely that a large portion of the workforce may actually be back sooner rather than later. The team at RANE is monitoring the situation closely to surface and amplify relevant information and the latest intelligence from our network.

No matter how quickly we go back to work, making the work environment feel safe for people going back is going to be job No. 1. That's according to Bill Edwards, the associate principal of protective design and security services at Thornton Tomasetti, an expert firm in the RANE Network.

"I think when you really look at it, it's going to take a lot of creativity and imagination to get our workforce back in place. Considering what we're going through and what we've gone through, it's going to be the first thing that needs to happen...Businesses, facility managers, facility owners, there's going to be this dual purpose that's got to take place. One is people are going to want to have some comfortable feelings about entering a facility. Is it clean? Are we taking the necessary precautions with HVAC and air flow? And then of course just getting people to feel comfortable is going to be super important."

Edwards says no matter when businesses reopen, there will be marked differences in every workplace.

"We're going to see some major changes obviously from the time before this pandemic and now, and the time after. Travel, in-person meetings, a lot of different things we were used to are going to be shaped differently. But I still don't think we'll ever get away from wanting to have that personal contact, specifically in businesses that rely on the personal contact to develop the business from like a business development perspective."

As this crisis continues to evolve, the team at RANE is providing a range of support services for our clients:

• Producing accurate, objective intelligence to assist decision-making for both businesses and individuals. Our daily coronavirus intelligence brief tracks key developments around the virus' transmission, economic impact and operational effects — critical news, analysis and commentary for organizations formulating their own policies, procedures and response plans.
• Providing topical briefing sessions with world-class experts to help clients navigate their way in this global crisis. We've held numerous briefing sessions with world-class experts from our network who gave their perspectives on the information-making headlines, what we can expect to see and what we should be watching as the situation evolves.
• Hosting a series of knowledge-sharing webinars featuring experts from the RANE Network. Our most recent webinar held on May 5 was entitled Addressing the Mental Health Effects of COVID-19. If you were unable to join the webinar, you can access the webinar replay — and please feel free to share this link with business colleagues, friends and family.
• Producing knowledge-sharing podcasts on topics ranging from virus safety to the actual business of getting back to work. You can find all of our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud or wherever you listen.
• Creating objective intelligence on a daily basis with answers to frequently asked questions about the virus. Global markets will be reshaped over the coming months, and our analysts conduct scenario assessments to identify the disease, governance and economic forces likely to determine the path the pandemic takes, with the ability to tailor these scenarios to a company's business.

You can learn more about how RANE is helping clients during this challenging period here.