How Businesses are Adapting to Experience Minimal Financial Impact
The vast majority of the working population on our Island and in the UK have not experienced such an epic disruption to business, jobs and services within their lifetime. This is new territory, and the fact it’s happening because of a global pandemic (that is changing the goal-posts daily) is keeping everyone very much on their toes!
What are companies doing to work around Covid-19 and to make sure that the wheels keep turning? How are smaller businesses adapting so they experience the least amount of financial impact?
Use of Video Conferencing/Virtual Meetings
Use of technology has been a lifesaver for companies to keep up communication. For those not sure, videoconferencing is when meetings are held online, a bit like Facetime and video calls that are an option on Smartphones, but you can hold the meeting for larger groups of people and with more features.
Companies are making use of this technology for meetings and interviewing candidates for new roles, this tool is particularly useful instead of travelling due to the risks involved and isolation regulations being enforced. Videoconferencing allows for face to face communication, ability to see body language and provides a more human to human approach which of course is beneficial for business and social reasons.
We are seeing a rise in use of video conferencing for training, delivering demonstrations and coaching. It is good to see when companies adapt so quickly during a crisis – it brings new opportunities for employees to learn new skills, harness their communication and really ‘work together’ to solve problems and keep up with the changes.
Get in touch with local companies to find out how this could help your business survive!
Working Remotely
Some businesses are opting for staff to work from home for a period of time, to minimise any potential risks and to help ‘flatten the curve’ of the pandemic. Working remotely can have challenges, cyber security and data protection is high on the list.
Local IT companies will be very busy right now assisting with Cloud solutions and setting up networks to enable staff to work from different locations.
Team Communication Tools
Web based communication tools for teams are useful when working remotely or when reducing face to face contact. These apps provide the tools for instant messaging on mobile and desktop, document sharing, project management, video messaging, and supports a team ethos. Humour channels seem popular to provide some social communication and fun!
Slack is a popular communication platform for start-ups and describes itself as follows: “It’s where the people you need, the information you share, and the tools you use come together to get things done.” Slack is used completely virtually! You can build teams within a business and across businesses too, so it’s perfect for collaboration when working on projects and services.
There are many platforms to choose from and to suit including, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Trello. A recent guide can be found here which outlines features and pros/cons.
With so many new ways of working, it will be interesting to see how they are embraced and how staff and teams change and evolve to adapt to the guidelines from the Government, WHO and local legislation.
One thing’s for certain, we will all learn something new, we need to stay positive and motivated to get through the current situation and come out stronger than ever 💙
Get in touch if you need support on recruitment for your business or advice and guidance for your career path…
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