Many companies are feeling the disruption that COVID-19 has brought to their businesses. It is clear the pandemic has had a negative impact on many businesses in Zambia as seen from the June 2020 Purchasing Managers index which shows that the productivity of local businesses is still subdued.
Despite the pandemic wreaking havoc to many business plans for 2020, it is important that corporates ensure that they do not put profits over the welfare of their employees and suppliers. This is because, during this emotive period, certain behavior coming from a company can provoke a backlash that can have consequences on its interaction with the wider community.
Many companies have implemented several work-from-home protocols for their employees. For example, some local law firms have put in place clocking mechanisms to ensure supervisors are able to monitor those lucrative billable hours. However, it is prudent for the firm to ensure that their charges are not constantly logged on as this may have the consequence of having stressed and less productive employees. In short, one can not compare an 8 hour in office work shift to an 8-hour work-from-home shift. The former is a controlled environment whereas the latter is uncontrolled and prone to very challenges the COVID-19 has brought onto society. Therefore, companies must ensure that employee stress is managed.
Studying employee productivity during this difficult time is another responsibility that companies should take on. A happy workforce is a productive workforce. COVID-19 has presented physiological due to forced isolation and abrupt behavioral changes. This means that the environmental factors that were never an issue have now come to the fore overnight. In a recent article for the Financial Times, Professor Lynda Gratton of London Business School suggested that “during this short period of time in the lockdown we have altered a host of attitudes, behaviors, and skills which will inform our future”. Therefore, companies can not ignore the learnings of this period in order to prepare themselves for the future to come.
With the supply chain also impacted, companies that have a host of suppliers must ensure that they play their part in the survival of their value chain. Smaller businesses have experienced the full force of the pandemic. Entities with means have a responsibility of putting in place measures that will see the smaller suppliers survive during this difficult time. Measures such as liquidation of invoices for smaller businesses is one way of ensuring good faith. This “goodwill” has more impact than making donations of masks as it not only protects the jobs within the value chain but also ensures a level of survival of an industry.
How companies treat their various stakeholders during this period will make the difference between preserving a reputation for longer sustained value creation or burnishing their reputation for a perceived short-lived gain.