Overcoming the difficulties of a global business during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has been difficult on everyone, but many businesses have suffered all over the world. Global businesses have been hit with a lot of difficulties, especially with the medical guidelines that countries are forced to take to protect themselves from COVID. So, how can a global business overcome these difficulties?
Firstly, one of the most important things your business can do is go back over and review any polices you might have for dealing with disasters. This could include evacuations of any on-site situations, flights to and from various countries where your company is more involved, and how to deal with changes in tax rates in various countries. Some of the things to consider when reviewing these plans is the bandwidth that a certain area can handle, for the employees that have to work from home. Another thing to consider is how communication between your employees will work during this time.
Secondly, you need to know where your staff is going to be at any given time. What travel policies and restrictions are in place and what employees will work from home? Go over every employee’s travel plans to reschedule or cancel them as necessary.
Thirdly, it’s important to review your supply chain. When you know what your supply chain is, you will be able to see where it’s vulnerable and then be able to get a head start on fixing it. You’ll want to start on anything from products, suppliers, to raw materials. It may also be a good idea to come up with a contingency plan for any future changes COVID-19 may cause (spike in numbers as the disease spreads).
Fourthly, it’s important to go over various scenarios that you might have to face. Even if the scenarios seem unrealistic, you want to go over every possibility that you can think of and come up with a plan of action—how will your company deal with this situation? That way, when it happens, you’ll already have a detailed plan in place that you can put into action, which will save your company a lot of trouble. It’s also best to think of best-case-scenarios, and worst-case scenarios so that your company can be prepared for anything.
Fifthly, it may be hard to be honest, but you should find out where your company is weakest. Figure out what teams or employees are critical and which ones are underperforming. Do you have any particular employees with critical skills that your company could use during this time?
Another tip is to double check where each employee is going to be working and where they need to go. Try to limit the amount of human interaction as much as possible and figure out steps around that—remote working, staggered shifts, working from home, etc.
Lastly, having a good translating and interpreting service will make things so much easier for your company. With all the travel restrictions in place, hiring regular translators will be a pain, but if you hire an online translator or interpreter, then your employees can work from home and still do their job efficiently.
The pandemic has been difficult on businesses around the world, but your global business doesn’t have to suffer for it. If you follow these steps, your business can survive these hard times.