ANZ China: incredible teamwork as COVID hits

Working from home, living in the office – a timeline

March 27

20:23 - Shanghai municipal government releases an announcement that the Pudong area (the half of the city by the Huangpu river) and Puxi area (another area by the river) will be locked down from March 28 and April 1 for 4 days respectively in two batches in response to Omicron outbreak. The city is not prepared as this never happened in Shanghai even during the first outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.

21:00 - ANZ China Emergency Management Team convene an emergency meeting to discuss how we respond to this news and how we can manage business continuity. ANZ China’s business continuity plan (BCP) site sits in Pudong area which had been closed a few days earlier. In order to ensure the normal operation of the bank and remote office, and deal with unexpected issues that may occur, the decision is made the best way forward is to organise a capable team to be stationed at the Lujiazui office for critical services. There is only three hours remaining before the estimated closure of all city cross-river roads.

21:25 - Danny Huang, Head of Technology for ANZ China, texts his team to select a core group to come back to Lujiazui office for this critical mission.

21:33 - Several team members put their hands up for the task. “I'll pack up and take a shower, I'm ready to go at any time," one says. Recalling this simple and straightforward response, Danny is still deeply moved by his awesome team members.

23:05 - Danny Huang, Rex Zhang and Sharon Wang crossed the river via three different tunnels to the Mirae Asset Building in Lujiazui where ANZ Shanghai office is based to complete the mission.

What happened next?

1.     Creative solutions to maintain critical operations

After setting up their camps, Danny, Sharon and Rex cooperated to undertake system operation guarantee work for Australia, New Zealand and China in the early morning on behalf of several critical staff in China who would have been in the office but were locked in their communities. It was quite extraordinary for Technology team members to help with this work.

With the extremely special scenario of the bank's main and emergency office being locked down at the same time, they quickly came up with many contingency solutions and implemented them one by one. The team properly cooperated with the Operations, Finance and Compliance teams to complete the CBIRC 1104 regulatory report, the most important daily reporting for the local regulator.

At the same time, the emergency response team also responded quickly, using innovative methods to solve problems for global market department colleagues (who cannot access systems from home) and set-up connectivity with the Shanghai Gold Exchange, Shanghai Futures Exchange and National Debt Trading Center.

After seeing trading operations of the Global Markets carried out in an orderly manner, Henry Xu, ANZ Head of Markets Operation for China, said he would like to express his heartfelt thanks to our partners in the Technology on-ground team.

1.     Multi-skill team

Because of the extension of the full-city lockdown, the team has continued to live in the office and have had to help with requests from many different teams including for regulatory report submission, transferring client forms, managing company operations and set-up connections. This has all been completed with appropriate approval from Legal, Compliance and department heads and the Technology team have been authorised with permission to conduct this emergency work.

According to the Technology team, living in the office has been tough as no restaurants are open and there is no accommodation in the Mirae Assets building. Instead, the team became innovative to cook fresh food and try to maintain a good living routine with necessary physical exercise as well.

3.     Supporting each other

Due to the very limited time available to prepare for this amazing task of living in the office, members of the emergency team only brought a small amount of convenience food with them when arriving in the office.

Since March 28, restaurants, convenience stores and nearby shopping malls in Mirae Assets Building have been closed and online takeout has been stopped. While the team members were busy with the quick fix of all urgent tasks, Huang Xiaoguang, ANZ China CEO and Head of Greater China, contacted the restaurant of local hotels for food delivery. Over the next few days, the CEO’s office, Chief Operating Officer, Talent & Culture and Property teams relayed to help order meals for the emergency team.

Talent & Culture regularly checked-in with the families of the emergency team and offered help when needed. Outside of work responsibilities, the emergency team also took the initiative to water flowers in the office on a regular basis. The team says they expect the world will still be full of flowers when it returns after the epidemic.

Staff from a peer bank who were locked down in the same area also launched active mutual assistance, sharing both information, and fresh food and snacks to support each other.