In the past few days there has been a lot of news about the Coronavirus outbreak in the Netherlands and particular in the province of Noord-Brabant. Through this message we would like to inform you about the measures that Van Oers Accountancy & Advies (further: Van Oers) has taken through the uncertainty of the Coronavirus outbreak.
First, the good news: as of this writing, there are no reported cases of Van Oers employees or their families being infected with the virus.
The bad news is no one knows when new cases of the virus will peak, how many people will contract it, or when we will start to see it subside. The problem we are facing is that we just don’t know what we don’t know. Things are literally changing by the moment, and all we can do is pay attention and follow the advice of RIVM (The Dutch Health Authority).
On the planning side, there a few things we would like you to know:
- Last Monday we instructed our employees to work from home as much as possible, in line with RIVM advice.
- Employees who have symptoms such as fever, sneezing, coughing, shortness of breath, chest pressure, etc. have already been asked to stay home and contact the GGD (doctors, etc). Hopefully such symptoms turn out to be a cold or flu, but it is important to be aware of this and stay that way.
- Van Oers has the technological capacity for our entire organization to work remotely, so also outside a Van Oers location.
- Daily consultations take place about whether or not to continue internal and external events and meetings. Subsequently, we have already canceled the meetings in March and April.
- We ask our employees to coordinate a number of things in advance for client appointments, and preferably to postpone the appointment or let it continue by telephone.
As many of you know, this is a very busy time for us, with tax filing and financial statement regulatory deadlines quickly approaching. We are committed to maintaining the quality and timeliness of service that you expect from Van Oers.
But in saying that, our biggest priority is the health and safety of our clients and employees. We will do our best in these trying times, but if there’s an illness-related hiccup, please be understanding.
Thank you for understanding.
Van Oers Accountancy & Advies
On behalf of the Management Board,
Martin van Dijke
