QBE to stress test business due to coronavirus pandemic

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Employees will be asked to work remotely and customers will be encouraged to have virtual meetings

QBE will be shutting its UK offices this Wednesday 18 March for 24 hours, midnight to midnight, in order to stress test its business continuity plans and ensure it can operate without interruption.

This is in response to the coronavirus outbreak, also known as the Covid-19 pandemic.

QBE said it is escalating contingency measures in case it becomes necessary to close one or more of its offices for the safety of its employees.

The organisation will be instructing all of its staff to work remotely from home on 18 March only.

Resilience testing

A large proportion of QBE’s workforce currently works agilely, so to ensure the upcoming test is valuable, it is asking employees to continue their daily activities.

By carrying out this exercise, each of them will be re-testing their personal circumstances and the effectiveness of QBE’s continuity plans.

This includes European operations headquartered in London, as well as activity at regional offices.

During the test, no visitors will be permitted to UK offices.

Furthermore, QBE is encouraging its customers to conduct scheduled meetings virtually.

The company does do not expect any interruption to its services or customers as a result of the test.

QBE isn’t the only business stress testing its operations - last week, Lloyd’s of London closed its underwriting room to test its business contingency plans.