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Aon hails Australia’s virus strategies

Australia is creating a knowledge base to assist a global recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic take shape as the nation demonstrates how to keep workers and the public safe while rebuilding the economy, Aon says.

In a new global report entitled Helping Organizations Chart a Course to The New Better, the global broker notes Melbourne ended a 111-day lockdown in October and says “swift and decisive virus containment measures helped the country…manage the virus”.

It says many companies have “also found value in flexible approaches to decision-making”.

“As Australian companies and industries navigate uncertainty, many are finding that there is no time like the present to make long-awaited changes to operating models, digital investments, or other parts of the business,” Aon says.

Aon’s CEO Australia James Baum says organisations are now reassessing and undergoing an overhaul and “effectively looking at the future of work”.

“There is an important opportunity to learn from the pandemic and its impact – to build stronger operational resilience and to explore improvements in how we most effectively use the workplace.”

Ten Aon-business “coalitions” have been launched in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore as well as Chicago, Dublin, London, Madrid, New York and Tokyo, with participants from a broad range of industries helping to develop best practices for moving forward.

Aon CEO Greg Case says the decision to convene the coalitions “was driven by a need to build a collaborative roadmap to make better decisions in an increasingly complex world”.

“How society works, travels and convenes has permanently changed as a result of the pandemic,” Aon says. “Things cannot go back to the way they were.

“That means starting to think about not only today’s pandemic but long-tail risks such as climate change, cyber threats and the health and wealth gaps.”