Depending on where you sit, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused some serious damage to your livelihood. Whether you’re an employer or an employee, we are all struggling to make lemonade out of lemons. Employers are facing turnover issues (in more ways than one), and employees are at risk of losing their jobs or income streams. We’re all in the same boat and we are all searching for solutions. How can we overcome this massive obstacle in 2020? Only by working together and recognizing a new supply and demand in the similarities of the dilemmas we are currently facing.
1. Remote work reduces expenses – for all parties
Most of us are already working from home – unless you’re performing essential services and have to go out there to help society (I think you deserve a lot of applause) – so we’re getting used to this life. However, there are still many employers who are unsure of how it might impact their business. Well, from experience, there are only pros at this stage. As the employer, you can save on office space, utility bills, coffee, etc. On the other hand, employees can save on transport costs and enjoy a less stressful life working from home. It’s a win-win!
Now, the difficult part is in surviving in the long-term. Which is why it might help to think about changing your business model accordingly. If you don’t adapt, your business will risk closure. So, for example, if you’re a travel agency that previously focused on selling vacation packages, you might want to focus on a professional travel blog right now. You’ll need to be flexible in more ways than one. While it might have some impact on your bottom line, it can at least help you get through the worst. Thereafter, you can keep the cost-saving measure of remote work to get back on track. Similarly, for employees/contractors, that means more time to recover, to run errands, and to get rid of stress.
See it as a new chapter in life, your career, and/or for your business.
2. Rebranding
Part of having to change your business model and/or strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic is to rebrand yourself or your business. You can’t give up on marketing and branding yourself, but you can’t go crazy on your expenses. Why not take a risk and try a different strategy? Something subtle and cost-effective. For instance, you can rebrand yourself as a service provider that advertises for free on Gumtree. From the employee’s perspective, you can rebrand yourself as a Chief Content Officer instead of someone who’s just very experienced managing writers and editors – which is a discussion you can have with your boss, especially now since you have the leverage if you’re suffering through salary cuts.
3. Part-time employment
It can be difficult to keep several full-time employees as a small business owner during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, you can always consider switching to part-time to finish crucial projects instead of furloughing staff. As the employee, you can also make this recommendation if you are at risk of losing your job. The employer can keep the business running and the employee can get some kind of income.
4. Mutual benefits
If money is the problem, you can also consider discussing mutual benefits. For instance, employees can take reduced income for additional perks, free training, promotions, etc. What’s important here is that both parties are willing to compromise. As the employee, you would still like to keep your job over the long-term, which means you can help your employer cut costs somewhere if it is evident that they are struggling. You can always think about taking extended vacation, free tertiary education, or a promotion over that 30% loss for the time being. Sure, it is not ideal, but if your employer is going to shut their business anyway it might help you both.
5. Alternating job roles
Another challenge for hiring managers is to find the right staff for the right positions and for them to work remotely. But, why not just ask existing employees to fill the gap, albeit only for the short-term? Let your employees try different positions that they might be interested in and see what happens. Perhaps you will find your new Content Manager from one of your Marketing Coordinators, or a Senior Engineer from your SEO Specialist. You can save onboarding costs, advance the expertise of your existing employees, and perhaps help them out in that they serve an additional purpose and are therefore able to keep their salary.
Hopefully, this article serves as a reminder that we are all vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic and that we should work together rather than antagonistically. We should also understand that others are going through a lot of stress having to isolate and deal with personal issues. And in the words of the experts at the World Health Organization (WHO), we are one world; let’s stay at home to stay healthy.