What did businesses learn during the pandemic?

Image credit: Cherrydeck from Unsplash

Let’s not beat around the bush, the COVID pandemic has been awful from a human and economic perspective. While there are very few positives to take from the experience, there’s no doubt that businesses have learned lessons over the last 18 months which might just play a role in a more positive future. 

What lessons have businesses been forced to learn over this period? 

People Come First
It’s always been something that’s been said, but when push comes to shove, how many businesses truly put their employees before business success. Suddenly, faced with national lockdowns and potentially serious employees illness and risk, many businesses have realised that their greatest asset is their people. 

How To Bootstrap Their Finances
A lot of bloats can creep into company budgets, especially when times are good, but the sudden loss of revenue has led to companies learning how to try and achieve their goals with less and keep a very close eye on costs. While governments have put in place various Recovery Loan Schemes, furlough support and Stimulus packages, it’s still been down to the individual companies to balance their costs so when the financial outlook does improve, they know what they really need to spend money on and what they don’t. 

A Remote Workforce Can Perform
A lot of companies have been reluctant to introduce remote working for a number of reasons in the past. It’s been seen as a perk of more creative industries and many have pushed against it fearing that it would lead to employees slacking off, or not performing. This hasn’t been the case at all and many businesses are keeping their remote options in place past the end of the epidemic. 

The remote work shift was not without its problems as an increasingly stressed workforce tried to cope with homeschooling, isolation and anxiety around job security. 

The lack of everyday social contact with colleagues was also exacerbated by restrictions on seeing friends and loved ones too. 

How Agility Can Be The Difference Between Being In Business And Not
Companies that were able to adapt or pivot fast in response to events fared better than those that did not. Smaller, more agile companies found this much easier than the corporate behemoths in a lot of areas. Adapting business models quickly in order to take continue to trade through the COVID restrictions was often the difference between staying in business and not. 

The Importance Of Business Continuity Planning
The business continuity plans of many businesses were found wanting when the pandemic struck, simultaneously affecting premises and workforce. Businesses who have built their plans around the loss of data or similar found their policies insufficient to cope with the level of disruption caused. 

Key Points 
The COVID pandemic has been a watershed moment for the world in many respects. And we will be dealing with the repercussions of it for many years to come. Businesses that have survived the pandemic have been incredibly lucky and need to learn the lessons that trading through the pandemic has taught them in order to remain resilient in the future.