Ten Business areas impacted by COVID-19
From early 2020 when COVID-19 started, we have seen immediate impact on almost every aspect of life and business. Countries have applied lockdowns and some have still not released it. Countries that have opened their lockdowns too fast have faced 2nd wave of the virus and looking for the right balance between health and keeping the economy alive.
Table of Contents
Recruitment
Having to recruit new employees is always a challenge. We want to find the right candidates for the role in terms of professional skills, experiences and personalities that will suite our company culture. During COVID-19 achieving the recruitment objectives is harder than usual. Remote interview, confidence issues, inability to examine body language and not being able to explain about the work routines as they will change. At later stage the onboarding and induction plans are harder to perform and reducing the chances of new employees being successful at their new role.
Travel
Prior to COVID-19, travel became commodity and practical tool to meet employees, clients, suppliers, attending expos and scaling up. With global reduction of travel to almost zero, we are all facing the challenge of meeting others. It is not expected to change any time soon, so we all have to adjust and find other ways to conduct remote activities
BBC created a short-video about the Covid's impact on travel space
Management
In most cases, an important part of management is meeting the teams and working with them. Guiding them, mentoring, appraisals and all other managerial tasks. In addition, experienced managers will always get to know their team members very well and even different “good morning” tone will trigger different reactions. We are now working remote or in capsules and having to manage our team effectively from remote.
Partnerships
Most businesses rely on partnerships with their main stakeholders such as: customers, suppliers, banking, lawyers and all others involved in the value chain. Whilst they are all independent companies, meeting them periodically is key to ensure healthy relations. With inability to travel and reduced exposure to office meetings, the task is harder and everyone is required to find alternatives such as communication tools, automation tools and effective/pro-active updates.
Growth
We all want growth and some industries have seen growth during the pandemic. Managing growth isn’t easy during normal times but it is even harder. We need to growth whilst our managerial tools are restricted. Some organizations are also impacted by planned growth in 2020 which resulted in increasing costs in Q1 to facilitate the expected growth and they are now having to scale down to keep the right balance and reduce their fix costs
Sales
The main business driver that generate $$$. There’s a saying that “people buy from people” and that’s very true. At the core of the sales process, people communicate and engage to gain basic trust before they consider trading with each other. Some products and services are consumed as self service or expected to be sold from remote but many others are based on meeting or visiting shops. COVID-19 managed to “shuffle” all those cards and we all have to be creative in finding the new ways to sell.
Automation
Many companies plan to automate to save costs and to become more effective. Automation is usually a tool to take manual process and develop digital tools to automate it. COVID -19 lockdown is an amazing catalyst to accelerate this process and many organizations are almost forced to automate in order to keep their business running. Offices were closed, working remote or in capsules lead to slower productivity and unplanned limitations so automation is the answer.
Online Trading
For many years online trading and servicing were complimentary to offline and retail trade. With closed retails we see massive growth in ecommerce and online offerings. Companies that had the online trading facilities benefit from the growth and can substitute some of the reduction in traditional sales but those that are not online ready will need to immediately make it available to survive.
Corona-pandemic hits the biggest growth of e-commerce space in a decade
Work-Life Balance
It all blends…we work from home, limited in going out to socialize or to gym, cannot travel for holidays and live in uncertain times. It is important to find the right balance and look for new ways to enjoy life and spend our free time. Reading, taking online courses, going out for walks and other activities are all recommended. Keeping work-life balance is critical for our mental and physical health.
Leadership
Business Leaders are all required at this stage to be optimistic and to ensure that they create clarity and certainty to their teams and other stakeholders. Time for clear, simple and effective communications. Simplify KPIs, objectives and language and ensure that you smoothly operate your business. The most important – lead by example.