The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic forced businesses to deal with several unanticipated challenges and although vaccines are now available, companies will continue to face disruptions brought about by these sorts of uncertainties. Organisations should take these challenges in stride and arm themselves with possible solutions like the ones suggested below.
Supporting remote work
The year 2020 saw a major shift to remote work as governments called on companies to have as few people as possible working onsite. With the need for social distancing still being upheld, remote working remains the way to go for most businesses. In this case, companies will have to deal with challenges that come with supporting their workers to work effectively from home.
For starters, companies will have to continually equip their remote workforce with the right online tools for collaboration and communication. They also have to successfully support the coaching and training of their remote workers. Most importantly, managers have to ensure that people working from home remain engaged and motivated to continually remain productive throughout the year. Furthermore, using VPNs is ideal for remote employees to log in to the office network from anywhere. Those who learn more about VPNs will realize how useful and practical they can be.
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As Ben Richardson of Development Academy said “Managing people well if they are remote is different from managing people in the office. It requires a different communication approach as you don’t receive in-person cues that you do when you are in the office with them.”
Promoting a healthy mindset at work
As COVID 19 continues to infect and affect people globally, there is so much anxiety, fear, and hopelessness among people. To add to this, employees working from home are not only under pressure to perform their roles effectively but the very fact of working in isolation is also taking a toll on many of them. This is why companies need to be proactive in handling their remote teams’ psychological health.
Besides providing online collaboration and communication tools, there is also a need to ensure that teams use them. Managers have the task of promoting virtual meetings and happy hours among their remote teams. Also, they need to focus on employees’ strengths rather than weaknesses as well as offer continuous feedback. They could also recommend assertiveness training workshops that could help with the workers’ motivation and productivity.
Moreover, given that managers cannot pour out from an empty cup, they will need to achieve some kind of emotional stability to be able to help their staff. To do this, they will need to schedule a time for self-care focused on maintaining stable mental health.
Customers’ virtual interactions
With the call to avoid crowded places and stay at home, most people are preferring to conduct their purchasing online. Companies that are focused on keeping their customers are turning to online platforms to ensure that customer engagement continues virtually. The good thing about having an online presence is that companies are now able to expose their offering to a diverse global market. The challenge, however, comes with successfully conveying the brand message in a language that all potential customers can understand.
To cross this hurdle, companies can partner with reputable translation firms offering reliable translation services to ensure that their websites and online pages are translated professionally. These service providers will ensure that the content companies share with their customers is in the language that they understand to enable them to make informed choices.
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Rebuilding customer relationships
The COVID-19 pandemic affected businesses in various ways, particularly in the area of customer relationships. Customer loyalty and faith in business is much lower than it was before the pandemic. If businesses are to restore their customers’ faith in what they offer, those relationships that were affected by the pandemic need to be redeveloped and revitalized in 2021.
One way to achieve this is to have more giveaways for the customers. Besides, companies can use the opportunity to offer credible information about their business, or the pandemic to their customers. Information regarding the pandemic is everywhere, with most of it being misleading. Customers will appreciate receiving valid and credible information from a source that they trust. Companies can also use their customers’ data to know what the customers need and expect from them. This way, they can create more personalized messaging and ads that can further strengthen the bond.
Conclusion
Companies will have the opportunity to breathe easy once the pandemic is gone and forgotten. But until then, even with a vaccine available to the public, some problems will linger much longer. This article highlights a few of them. Companies, therefore, have a mandate to stay prepared for any unexpected happenings.
