Covid-19: Impact of on IT Industry
Year 2020 is coming to an end and much of the world is still confronting with covid crisis. As of early May 2020, over 3.5 million people have been infected worldwide, with more than 250,000 suffered death as a consequence [a]. Famous US companies such as Sears, JCPenney, Neiman Marcus, Hertz, and J. Crew are facing big financial crisis [b]. Many big-player in IT Industry are suffering from bitter financial setback. Many startups have been closed right after suffering from initial wave of covid. The lock-down policy in many countries had further deteriorated the condition. Most of the IT people are working from home with more than usual office workload whereas many are facing immediate or imminent job loss and salary deductions as industries have cut back on services and productions and customer demand decreasing. The experts have still no idea of how long this pattern will continue. It appears like the whole world is locked inside a dark room and no knows the path to the exit door.
Post Covid Crisis Planning
The Covid crisis has a profound effect on everyone life. Despite having being confronted with global health emergencies before, such as SARS (2003), H1N1 (2009) and Ebola (2014-2016), organizations seem to have forgotten the lessons learned that should be adopted during this pandemic [c]. To help business in managing the current pandemic situation, we have outlined several strategies:
1. Prepare and execute a effective crisis management plan that covers the entire organization in terms of business processes, services and man-power.
2. For all the work that can be handled through online communication via telephones, internet etc. proper training should be provided to the staff. This include productivity tools like Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Team etc for online meeting.
3. Educate the employees with the safety measures and with every government guidelines in the workplace.
4. Ensure that to last extent employees do not suffer job less and salary cut. The negative impact of job less and salary cut is that the companies suffers a reputation loss as well as loss of potential employee who put their years in carving that organization.
5. Ensure health and well-being of employees and provide any necessary aid if they or their family member are suffering from pandemic.
6. Reduce the extraordinary expenses and overhead of traveling expenses, luxury hotel stay etc. This cut should be uniform for members whether it be a CEO of company or a general clerk.
7. Prioritize the primary goals and teach your employees to work in a critical situation while being on your primary goals.
8. If the organization financial condition is so bad that it cannot survive without salary cut or layoffs, do this in a moral way. Share with them the financial storm the organization is facing and assure them once they get to the shore they will revert to them.
9. Take lessons from past experiences of yours as well as of others. Compare your plans with the best performing ones and point out where you can perform better.
10. Be prepared with a plan for any unprecedented event that might affect your organization. Prepare a team of knowledgeable and experienced member for taking consultation on critical decisions.
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References:
[a] JHU COVID-19 dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) 2020. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
[b] Donthu, N., & Gustafsson, A. (2020). Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of Business Research, 117, 284-289. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.008
[c] “Addressing the impact of COVID-19Post-crisis review and lessons learned”. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/About-Deloitte/gx-thrive-update-crisis-playbook-to-reflect-COVID.pdf
