NACD this week polled nearly 200 members to better understand how directors and their boards are responding to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While the economic, social, and political impacts remain in flux—evidenced in one dimension by the S&P 500 declines and gains of nearly 10 percent last week—corporate boards are in a unique position to help management respond effectively to the short- and long-term implications of the crisis.

Director responses to the pulse survey reflect the early actions boards are taking to combat the crisis, and their responses may have shifted in the time since. NACD’s Resource Center: Responding to the COVID-19 Crisis can help directors govern more effectively through these uncertain times. And NACD’s March 2020 poll reveals how boards have been doing so in real-time over the last week.

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Many anticipate a short-term business impact.

As of March 16, about a third of S&P 500 companies had disclosed COVID-19 in their risk factors (30%) and earnings calls (33%), according to MyLogIQ, a public company disclosure information aggregator. Numbers are similar for the Russell 3000, where risk-factor mentions jumped from 29 percent to 39 percent between March 12 and 16, per MyLogIQ. In the NACD poll, most directors saw the largest likely disruption in the demand for their products (28%) followed by employee productivity (19%), and impacts to their supply chain (16%) and the capital markets (14%).