Since the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the Covid-19 or Coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, many companies are taking precautions against the impact and spread of the virus. The government also plans to close restaurants, bars and hotels nationwide along with non-essential stores. Companies are asking their employees to work from home for their safety. The Coronavirus outbreak has forced companies to slow or halt their physical operations, impacting production in the upstream sector. Meanwhile, downstream operations are upgrading their systems and pushing to work more flexibly. Many industries such as tourism, hospitality, retail, forestry and transport industry, etc. are facing great troubles. While many companies now allow their employees to work at home, telecommuting isn’t an option for many people. Restaurants also had to close except for pickup and delivery service. Also, vehicle manufactures Ford, General Motors and Fiat Chrysler are suspending production until the end of March.
But many people are unable to work due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic as their job or work profile does not allow this work flexibility. This is just making employers cut the jobs as the employers cannot pay the wages. This situation is really severe in many countries. Now, the Coronavirus outbreak is resulting into huge lay-off which is again not a good sign. While there are state and federal measures coming to help those impacted financially, in the more immediate future people can file for unemployment benefits. While some employers are asking their employees to take unpaid leaves as a solution to this. This is all resulting into a global economic slowdown.
Ronojoy Dutta, CEO of IndiGo – India’s largest airline, announced on March 19, that the airline was instituting pay cuts for their senior employees and he would himself take the highest cut of 25 % amid the novel coronavirus pandemic that has hit the aviation industry hard. Also the Apollo Tyres chairperson, Onkar Kanwar announced a 25 per cent cut in their remuneration. GoAir, Indian low-cost airline has already sent 80 of its expat staff home. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, CEO of Paytm, told that he would not take his salary of this month and next. Not only Indian companies but many foreign national companies have also decided to cut off wages.
Many companies are laying off Employees due to coronvirus crisis
U.S. airlines, which directly employ close to 750,000 people, are on edge about how quickly lawmakers will provide aid to the industry, dealing with a collapse in demand. The executives have described this collapse even worse than 9/11. United and its competitors have decided to slash flights, freeze hiring and ask employees to take unpaid leaves. In tourism industry, job losses could reach 67,000 as coronavirus sees international tourism dry up and consumers pocket their wallets. Tourism, hospitality, retail, forestry and transport sectors are all expecting to shed thousands of workers with claims 5000 jobs are on the line unless there is immediate assistance for 65 large tourism businesses facing full or partial closure. Westpac NZ chief economist Dominick Stephens has quoted that the overall unemployment is likely to rise from 4 per cent to 5.5 per cent or 45,000 unemployed people. He further added that the drop in jobs could reach up to 67,000 when “shadow unemployment” is taken into account. Kenya Flower firms have sent home more than 1,000 employees after huge losses following a closed European market.
On the other hand, several companies also promised that they would not cut salaries of their staff and were not considering layoffs in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Rajiv Bajaj, managing director and chief executive officer of Bajaj Auto, has said, “I will cut my salary to zero before a single employee is laid off.” Similarly, other Indian business groups like The Aditya Birla group, the Vedanta group and the Essar group have also promised not to cut any jobs or salaries of their staff. U.S. airlines are asking for $58 billion in government aid, including direct grants.
This unemployment will have direct impact on country’s GDP and will result into much slower economic slowdown. As due to unemployment, majority of the laid off people will totally refrain from buying or using new products or services. This is directly going to affect the economic progress of many nations. According to some reports, new claims for unemployment benefits climbed to 281,000 last week as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered businesses and left people out of work. The Labor Department said that it was the highest level since Sept. 2, 2017, when they totalled 299,000.
Governments are helping companies Cope with Crisis
At the same time, many governments are trying to help the affected businesses & people cope with the coronavirus crisis. For instance, the UK government said that it will subsidize the wages of any worker facing unemployment because of the coronavirus pandemic as it ordered the closure of pubs and restaurants to try to contain the outbreak. Their finance minister Rishi Sunak told reporters that the government will cover 80% of worker salaries for at least the next three months up to a maximum of £2,500 ($2,900) a month. The Danish government announced that it will cover 75% of the salaries of employees paid on a monthly basis who would otherwise have been fired, with companies paying the remaining amount. But as of now, many governments have not taken any action to deal with the issue of lay-offs. It will be interesting to see how Indian government will react to the this phase of lay-off and unemployment.
Virtual teams are becoming more and more common across the globe — from virtual assistants at small businesses to teams within big companies such as IBM to digital start-ups with fully remote teams. The benefits are clear. According to Global Workplace Analytics, remote teams increase employee productivity, satisfaction levels, and can save a company more than $10,000 annually. That’s not including the benefit of tapping into a global talent pool.
Team
As it becomes more common for companies to utilize remote workers, these businesses are discovering an influx of unique and new challenges related to managing virtual teams. As with any business, there are definitely hurdles to overcome.
Benefits of Hiring a Remote Team
Access to the best employees
Top talent doesn’t always just come knocking on your door. Significant effort is always required to build a world-class team. Of course, you have to carefully consider candidates during the hiring process. This often involves creating a team member persona, or in the case of a remote hire, a “remote persona” (just like you create buyer personas for your customers).
You should look for people who meet your criteria in the following areas:
Company values
Discipline
Focus
Work/life balance
Decision-making skills, etc.
Criteria for Hiring
One of the benefits of hiring remotely is that it gives you more options than limiting yourself to local employees. If you choose to broaden your horizons and decide to hire remote workers, you will be able to find excellent team members anywhere in the world. The A-players that you hire around the globe will surely help your company grow.
The fact is, employees who are allowed to set flexible schedules are happier than those who have to live under the rule of the clock. They tend to have fewer family conflicts than their colleagues who work at the office.
Flexible work hours
Moreover, employees who work from home say managing balance between work and family is much easier for them. Not surprisingly, the happier your employees are, the more productive you can expect them to be, which leads to faster company growth and good company moral.
Low employee turnover
According to 2017 research, 32% of people would quit their job as they are not allowed to work remotely. Many companies take this fact into account as losing an employee and hiring a new one involves significant expenses. As a result, smart companies embrace the remote work policy to keep their employees’ turnover rate low.
Low overhead
Having a team of remote workers allows you to lower your overhead by cutting office expenses. Recent calculations show that companies would save more than $500 billion a year on office rent, utilities and turnover if they chose remote work schedule. Instead of spending money on maintaining your office, you will be able to invest it in your business.
Challenges of managing a remote team and how to overcome them
Communication problems
If you want to foresee and fix one issue from this list, choose communication. It’s the cause of almost every other management issue. Managers provide direction at every step of a project or business initiative, so they need to be extremely good at communicating the strategy and understanding what’s happening within a team. Communication is the key to success for most teams. It’s critical to gather input from all members and to know what each person is working on.
Communication in remote teams
When teams work remotely, it isn’t always easy to foster open communication. Traditional email marketing often seems like a formal tool that doesn’t enable quick conversations. Efficient, effective communication is the cornerstone of any functioning group, and it is especially crucial for remote teams. Coordinating virtual team members can be challenging, and communication can be a big stumbling block for many companies trying to successfully navigate remote hires.
Potential solutions
Make use of communication-based technological tools. Instant messaging, chat, and other two-way communication channels make sharing problems and potential solutions easier than ever.
Keep these channels open, and consistently monitor them throughout the day. If an employee has a problem, idea, or thought that needs to be shared, you should be as responsive and available to a remote employee as you would to any on-site worker.
Use project management software such as Hubstaff Tasks. Having one central tool for organizing projects and tasks ensures that everyone who needs to be in the loop stays that way. You can assign tasks to team members, add comments, outline the project steps in a checklist, and more.
Generally, it’s a good idea to try and clarify as much as possible about the role: what’s expected, which KPIs to measure, resources that are available and so on. It’s very important to clarify these things with your virtual employees, as they have no other medium to find out such details.
Finally, a more practical yet potentially time-consuming suggestion is to check for understanding after each meeting. Before you end, make sure everyone knows what their next steps are, then check if these matches and if the interpretations are aligned. This is very important in remote teams where you’re relying on emails, chat, and calls. Usually, you’re managing all of them combined. Important details can easily get overseen, skipped or misinterpreted.
Scheduling difficulties
Working with a remote team offers the potential for increased productivity, but managers must also overcome some virtual-related inefficiencies. For example, one of the most difficult challenges is managing workers across several time zones.
Scheduling difficulties
First, there are tools you can use online to help make scheduling a call, video conference, or meeting with remote teams easier. From a simple online poll that lists selected dates and times that team members can choose to calendaring apps and a variety of websites and free hosts that assess participant availability, there are ways that make the process of scheduling a meeting less stressful. It also helps if team members’ schedules are flexible, since some time zones don’t line up well with traditional working hours.
Potential Solutions
Whenever all employees are meeting (via phone, teleconference, or video conference), find a time that falls within everyone’s workday. This might mean first thing for some and end of the day for others.
If the time difference really makes coordinating schedules impossible, get creative. For example, record meetings for employees who can’t attend live. This way, they can view and/or hear what happened.
Collect feedback regarding meetings via e-mail. This gives everyone the opportunity to chime in; even those who couldn’t attend while it was actually happening.
Use email to document big and important announcements such as process changes, company directives, and other important announcements that don’t require a meeting, but are nonetheless important.
Use scheduling software that allows you to schedule shifts for each team member and get alerts if they haven’t started tracking time during that window. You’ll also get email alerts if a shift is abandoned or there are missed shifts altogether, ensuring that teams are working when they say they will and avoiding downtime for your business.
Do you know how much work your remote team accomplishes and at what rate? For many managers, the answer to these questions is unclear. It’s hard to know if someone is being underutilized or is not pulling their own weight without an understanding of their productivity. For this reason, remote managers need to establish ways to track productivity for all employees. This can include setting up metrics for how much work is expected to be completed each day. This might look like:
Creating and maintaining a company blog.
Scheduling 20 social media posts per hour.
Making 150 cold calls per shift.
Tracking work and productivity
The KPI metrics you choose to evaluate the productivity of remote employees should also be the same criteria used for in-office employees. This ensures that there are clear expectations in place, regardless of how and where your team works.
Potential solutions
For customer-facing team members in remote agencies, have a system in place to ensure open channels of communication between you, the customer, and the employee. If a customer doesn’t feel a remote employee is meeting expectations or hitting necessary benchmarks, you, as the manager, need to know this as soon as possible.
When you manage remote workers, you have a lot less insight into how work is getting done. Employees must know what’s expected of them at all times, including if you’re concerned about hours logged or if you’re simply interested in the end product (regardless of time spent).
Even remote teams can implement some rules about how work is done. Some virtual companies insist on employees working from an office or offer to pay for a coworking space if the employee chooses to work from one. This works well to provide a distraction-free work environment.
To avoid problems, it’s helpful to have a quantitative way to evaluate a remote worker’s contributions. This way, if you’re in any way unhappy with the work, you can explain exactly why. This will make it clearer for the worker, and it helps get that employee up to speed about expectations as quickly as possible.
Utilize employee productivity software to get the best sense of what your remote team is up to during the workday. Depending on the system you use, this platform could even provide intermittent screenshots to show you exactly which projects are being worked on, and what the status is. This tool provides invaluable data to you, and it encourages remote employees to stay active and engaged in company priorities.
Building trust
Building trust is difficult for remote managers and team members. Managers worry that workers aren’t completing work, while workers have a range of concerns, including whether they’ll be paid on time. Being transparent can help to build trust for all parties. You can help build trust by being transparent about: Working hours, Project expectations, Pay rate, Payment timelines, and Status updates on projects
In terms of expectations, be honest about the workload you expect to have for your contractors. Many B2B marketing companies tell freelancers they can expect the amount of work to increase substantially over the coming months, even when this isn’t the case. These kinds of statements might be well intentioned, but it may lead some freelancers to believe they’ve been strung along. They may even have negotiated for a lower rate because of the volume and then feel duped when it doesn’t pan out.
Potential solutions
Employees need feedback often in order to correct problems early on and become satisfied, top performers in their role. Be sure that all managers are giving frequent feedback to address any issues, blockers or challenges people are facing. This will help the managers to develop trust with the team members and give them the flexibility needed to make virtual teams work.
Put a premium on video conferences. Seeing each other’s faces is the next best thing to meeting in person.
Trust your employees, but also utilize time-tracking software. It keeps everyone accountable and can help team members feel confident in the hours they put in.
So how can SaaS leaders and companies effectively support and manage employees who aren’t in an office? There is the REMOTE formula to help. Resources, Engagement, Motivation, Objectives, Trust and Expectations are what you need to remember when working with, or developing a team remotely.
REMOTE formula
Resources: Get the right tools. There’s an abundance of online collaboration resources which, in some cases, are specifically designed to ease the struggles of remote working.
Engagement: Engage with your remote workers on a daily basis as you would do if they were based in an office. You must eradicate all feelings of isolation. Communication is key and setting out clear goals and outcomes is important to achieving success.
Motivation: This is exactly the same as in an office environment. You don’t want your team soft pedalling and giving just a small percentage of their full potential. Motivating your team to achieve tasks they may have never done before will better utilize their just discovered skillset, improve productivity and maximize effort.
Objectives: SaaS team leaders should focus on setting direction via goals, not activity. Try not to be overly concerned with details, and when goal achievement confidence is low, know when and how to jump in and find a way to support the area that’s a challenge.
Trust: This is a biggie. You must trust your remote workforce. It starts with whether you’re a high trust company or a low trust company. A high trust organization would have their fair share of multipliers. The company shows empathy, collaboration and recognizes their employees as people who are achieving great things. A low trust organization tends to express toxic cultures and would have diminishers amongst the teams. Most of the time formality takes over friendliness.
Expectations: By introducing a remote working culture you’re leaving your employee more control of their working structure. Expectations of them and the work they produce for the company needs to be made extremely clear.
Conclusion
The debate of remote working is one that will continue to develop. The purpose of this long post is to aid SaaS companies when making a decision to grow and scale, but a work from home culture is not for every organization. Despite the fact that creating and managing a remote team is not easy, it’s definitely worth trying if you have the tools to be successful. So, let’s create your remote team now. Please tell us your views in the comments section below.
Coronavirus outbreak has already affected many sectors of human life right from restaurants, food chains, tourism, airlines, sporting events to film industry also which is eventually leading to economic slowdown in many countries. While the various countries are continuing to prepare and practice social distancing and self-quarantine during this COVID-19 pandemic, companies are looking for workers to help restock empty shelves and deliver orders to home-bound customers. In addition to this, of course, Coronavirus outbreak is also having a significant impact on the jobs market, employers plans to hire and the recruitment industry as a whole, experts have warned. Many industry executives & experts have stated their views towards coronavirus impact on recruitment industry and hiring.
What Experts say about Impact on Recruitment –
Lee Biggins – CEO and the founder of CV-Library Lee Biggins has stated, “No doubt that the Coronavirus outbreak will have significant consequences for the recruitment industry as a whole”. He further added, “We’re already hearing feedback that employers are pausing their hiring plans while they wait for the worst to pass.” Steve Blank – a retired serial entrepreneur-turned-educator Steve has said, “It’s no longer business as usual for the rest of the economy. In fact, shutting down the economy for a pandemic has never happened. Millions of jobs may be lost in the next few months, as entire industries are devastated, something not seen since the Great Depression of 1929-39. I hope I’m very wrong, but the social and economic impacts of this virus are likely to be profound and will change how we shop, travel, and work for years.” Kamal Karanth – Co-founder of staffing solutions provider Xpheno Karanth has said, “Several India entry projects are getting or likely to get postponed. Senior-level hiring, which is considered as critical hiring in any industry and usually remains insulated from various other factors, is likely to be pushed back for some months.” Jamie Dimon – CEO of JPMorgan Chase Jamie Dimon has quoted that it expected the U.S. economy to contract in the first two quarters of the year, which would meet a common definition of a recession.
According to reports, employment in Britain hit a record high in January before the Coronavirus outbreak but now the country is facing for a great wave of job losses. According to official figures, hiring of many firms & companies has been frozen there amid the crisis. Some companies have moved to freeze hiring until the economic impact of the virus is made clear, but many others are continuing to recruit in a bid to prevent a business slowdown. Several companies in India and across the world have already cancelled or postponed interviews. Some of them are turning to video calls, where possible, as they are unable to travel for face-to-face interactions, which is important in senior hires. Many reports state that hiring is likely to be delayed or pushed back by at least a quarter as the COVID-19 pandemic forces companies to suspend projects and find immediate ways to cope with the situation.
Usually, hiring of senior or top executives such as chief executives and operations and finance chiefs is also likely to be delayed by quarter as companies and senior executives are unable to travel. As senior-level hiring needs significant face-to-face interaction to get known about the candidate, interviews are getting pushed and indefinitely postponed. Similarly, the startup are also going to be affected due to coronavirus outbreak. For instance, in the startup ecosystem, hiring has been decided based on the growth plans they have but now many of them are unable to proceed further because They have fewer cash reserves and a smaller margin of error for managing sudden downturns. The ripple and feedback effect of all of these closures will have a major impact on country’s economy as each industry that gets impacted puts people out of work and those laid off workers don’t buy products and services. While according to some experts, the real impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on hiring in India will take 3-4 weeks to gauge.
Many Companies are still Recruiting Candidates
It’s important to note that the candidate market has always been competitive pre-coronavirus and companies have continued to take their time to process candidates and hire the best person for the job. That’s not going to change ever. As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect economies across the globe, few industries still have been left untouched by the fallout, and that’s having huge implications not only for the workforce but also the recruitment process. Many experts said that there is still hope for the recruitment industry, as many employers would continue to hire for essential roles and some sectors – such as health and social care and logistics were already recruiting more workers.
Lately, online e-commerce giant Amazon made headlines when the company announced it is looking to hire 100,000 workers for warehouse and delivery positions. Meijer, American Supermarket company, is also hiring additional seasonal team members in each of their stores to meet the demands of the business. Cosco says it to is looking for workers to help keep its inventory moving to meet customer demand. Walmart is looking for employees to add to its delivery drivers.
All above information just comes down to the fact that Not every industry slows down in an economic downturn and not every company within an industry slows down. The bottom line is people get hired during layoffs and hires happen even when things slow down. Hiring will speed up or slow down within an organization based on their strategic plans for the year not solely because of a virus.
If you are looking for a job or internship you must be looking for tips to crack job interview. Basically, an interview is a formal interaction between an employer and a candidate to assess the suitability for a given job opportunity. In today’s world, the majority of qualified people are looking for jobs. Remember, competition for the job market is very high. For you to outstand and secure one, you need to put in mind the following tips to crack interview while attending any interview.
The greatest thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. —Oliver Wendell Holmes, Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
10 Tips to Crack Interview
1. Understand the Type of Job you want
People looking for jobs have been trying their luck in so many ways. Career is about getting a job of your interest. Companies circulate job adverts every day but we need to assess ourselves first. The majority end up applying for jobs that don’t suit them at all. When invited for an interview they chew black out.
Understand the type of job you want
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” —Confucius, Chinese philosopher
2. Prepare for the Interview
Check the position you have applied for, go through the job description, analyze each task and get to know the possible questions that might be asked. Internalize on some of the common questions and work on your communication skills.
“One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” –Arthur Ashe, American tennis player
It is very important to learn about the company before you applied with. Check on company’s website and know their vision, mission, programs and projects. Chances are very high that you may be asked a question like; how you will add value to their organization. You can only answer this when you know their exact mandate. This can make the interviewer get impressed.
“Finding a job that is a good fit is as much about you selecting the right company as it is about them selecting the right candidate.” ― Miles Anthony Smith, Author
When getting into an interview room, it is advisable to wear the right mood and have the mindset the offer belongs to you. Most of the candidates miss out the job simply because they didn’t qualify. The job ideally was not advertised for formality but attitude knocks them.
5. Practice Before
You can practice for the interview by placing the mirror in front of you or get a friend or relative and assume is the panelist. People might think you are mad but it is a very effective way. Gestures can be assessed here and check on areas to improve. Confidence also is raised. You can practice this over and over until you perfect it.
“Hard work and dedication and perseverance and being good to people does win. It does matter. Cream does rise to the top.” – Gina Rodriguez, American actress
6. Put a Smile on your Face
You might be in need of a job desperately but this does not warrant you to cry to the interviewer to get one. Don’t seem to be a beggar even if you are one but portray integrity. When you smile, it brings some sort of confidence that is even recognized by the interviewer. Smiling is also a tricky way of chasing nervousness.
“Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t waste energy trying to cover up failure. Learn from your failures and go on to the next challenge. It’s OK to fail. If you’re not failing, you’re not growing.” –H. Stanley Judd, Author
An interview per individual is set within a specified period of time. Again, interviewers don’t have time to hear stories. Avoid wasting their time and catch their interest by going straight to the point. Irrelevant stories are an indication that you did not prepare well.
“Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.” –Brian Tracy, American-Canadian public speaker
8. Prepare Questions to the Interviewer
Prepare Questions to the Interviewer
At the end of every interview, interviewers are fair enough to ask the interviewee if they have any question for them. This is the chance to ask them any question you have about their company. Ask even if one question is. Failing to ask a question means you are not sure or enthusiastic enough to take the opportunity.
9. Put Mobile Phone on Silent Mode or Switch off
Phones can ring unexpectedly. It is very embarrassing when interviewed phone rings in the midst of an interview. This brings unnecessary distraction and also diverting the attention of everyone. This shows un-seriousness and you might lose the opportunity.
10. Impressive Posture and Maintain Eye Contact
Sitting position matter a lot in an interview. Keep posture in a receptive angle. Maintaining an eye contact show the interviewer that you are confident.
Yes, getting a job is very challenging nowadays but I hope these tips to crack job interview will surely help you to get the job in your dream company. All the best!
“You must fall in love with your job, over and over again, to own it.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita, Pearls of Wisdom: Great mind
