The coronavirus pandemic has led mostly all the companies to ask their employees to work from home. This was not possible few years back but now it is a reality. Recently, Google had announced about it plan for a new working policy for its employees. Letâs look at Googleâs new working policy and the effectiveness of it.
Sundar Pichai who is the CEO of Alphabet and Google has announced a new working policy for the companyâs employees that is a hybrid model. The new working model will allow most of the employees to work out of their office for 3 days in a week and the rest employees to work remotely every day.
As the company is shifting to the hybrid work week model the company is expected to provide employees with more choices which include more global locations and remote work.
According to the model, around 60 % of the Googleâs employees will have to come to the office at least a few days a week, the other 20 % will work in new locations and the final 20 % of the employees will be able to work from home.
Sundar Pichai conveyed in a blog post that majority of the employees would want to be on campus sometime since Googleâs campus has been at the heart of their community. He added that still some of the employees would like to have the flexibility of working from home or spending time in another city for a part of the year or some would even prefer moving there permanently.
He said that Googleâs workspace in the future would have enough freedom for its employees to explore all these possibilities.
The main focus of the hybrid model is that the employees will get an option where they can work in the office for about 3 days in the office and for the rest 2 days, they will get an option to work from where they would prefer working from.
He added that it may vary according to the roles of certain employees as the job would demand them to be on-site for some projects.
The company is expecting to provide access to employees to choose from the options such as being able to apply to move to another office by the mid of June. The company is also planning to offer opportunities for the employees to apply for a complete work from home option.
In an effort by the company to allow more flexibility, the employees will get an option to temporarily work from another location which would exclude their main office for up to 4 weeks in a year. This would be possible only if there is an approval.
Google is said to always have been the leader when it comes to working conditions and practices related to people said Sandeep Das who has worked as a Strategy Consultant with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Marico and Accenture. He added that the other companies will have to follow them.
He added that he finds Googleâs model more effective, sound and realistic as its main focus is flexibility and choice with reducing the time for transportation of the employees, collaboration at work, time to log off and also the control over an individualâs life.
He adds that this would let working women continue their work and build their career and not to drop off in between their careers.
Bhavna Dalal, leadership development specialist and executive coach to Bloomberg, American Express, Google, HSBC, Oracle and Morgan Stanley said that in the long term there will be an improvement in the productivity when individuals choose to work from a place or surrounding which makes them feel comfortable and the best.
FAQ
What does hybrid work mean?
A hybrid team is a flexible work structure where some employees work remotely and other team members work from a central location or office.
Who is the CEO of Google 2021?
Sundar Pichai  is the CEO of Google 2021.
What are the benefits of hybrid working?
A hybrid workplace helps keep employees safe during the pandemic, Also it eliminates the time consumed in commuting during peak hours.
Conclusion
Work from home will soon become the new normal as not only Google but many other companies are working towards finding the possibilities of continuing it even after the pandemic. Companies such as Infosys, TCS and Spotify have already begun testing the possibilities of these hybrid working models.
The global pandemic has left an impact on the people and business in certain damaging ways. It has made the industries go through a tough patch of time experiencing uncertainty in jobs due to salary cuts, layoffs, unpaid leaves, etc.
Before the lockdown, the Indian economy was expected and supposed to see exponential growth. This speculation was based on the changing buying behaviour of the consumer when it came to purchasing furniture or other necessities. The demand for rental furniture was on the hike making people choose to rent the furniture rather than buying it. But, with the global pandemic, even the furniture industry was impacted.
But the culture of Work from Home adapted and implemented by the companies in India have revived the growth of Furniture market. Making people buy more and more comfortable furniture to work effortlessly at home.
Furniture generally refers to movable/immovable objects that support various human activities such as seating, eating, sleeping and majorly working on the desktops, laptops, etc. They are used to hold objects at an appropriate height for work or to store things.
The popularity of home/traditional furniture has strengthened the demand for its manufacturing in India. Over the past years, the utilization of wooden furniture at home has increased. Apart from this, the demand for engineered wood furniture is rising significantly in metro cities and other places too. The reason behind is the rising popularity of ready to assemble work like home furniture in these cities.
Adding more to it, the demand in India for modular furniture is growing exponentially. The development in the housing sector is changing the living standards of the population. The growing trend of home dĂŠcor and home furnishing with innovative and stylish furniture is the major factor behind the growth of the furniture industry in India.
There are more than a few numbers of market players in the furniture industry. Organizations like Featherlite, Godrej, Durian, and others have a good market presence in the Indian furniture industry.
India furniture market growth is driven by various factors such as rising demand for state of the furniture among the population living in urban cities and fancy seating furniture. The market is forecasted to expand at a rate of 12.91% during the period of 2016-2023.
Moreover, the rising growth of the furniture industry in India compensates the price of furniture. On the basis of these likeable factors, the furniture industry is expected to propel in India. Further, the rising trend of online Various furniture companies such as Woodenstreet, Furniturewalla, Pepperfry, Rentomojo, Urban ladder and others are creating huge demand from these online channels.
The furniture market size in India has increased a lot. Also, the demand for furniture is increasing in the commercial sector. In addition to this, these growing numbers of small and medium businesses further boost the demand for low-cost plastic furniture products. It is believed to foster the growth of the Indian furniture market over the forecast period.
Future Demand of Furniture market in India
Current Scenario of Furniture Market
The furniture buying and rental industry are trying to make the best of the challenging circumstances. With the evolving environment, the furniture industry can speculate online selling and buying through digital marketing to be the key to any industryâs success, giving opportunities to the furniture rental startups.
The basic need of the situation for the Furniture market is to develop an active supply chain response plan to alleviate the risk that the COVID-19 outbreak has caused.
The furniture industry will have to look at various aspects like creating and anticipating new demands through social media, creating campaigns that focus on the industry as a support product rather than an asset, response with risk transparency, analyzing product capacity, need and optimization, logistics capacity, prior booking, route optimization, and supplier management.
Demand and Future of Furniture Market
The new normal work from home has created a huge demand in the market for work from home furniture, helping the furniture rental industry to begin with the business establishment. The furniture in this sector includes desks, chairs, comfortable seating, and multipurpose household furniture.
The furniture industry witnesses a spike in demand for multifunctional furniture as one of the prime reasons driving the work from home furniture market growth. As people are habituated to work on a proper setup with desks and chairs. The new form of working has a high possibility to make people tired and get distracted. Almost 90% of the Indian companies have asked their employees to work from home, this situation is expected to go on the entire year, and furthermore.
India Work From Home furniture market is speculated to grow from a $2.22 billion in 2021 to $3.49 billion by 2026 majorly on a rising number of companies providing an option of working from home to their employees adopting cloud-based solutions.
Consumer preference for premium quality products, increasing urban population, and rising disposable income are a few other factors that are positively influencing the furniture market. It will change the lifestyle of consumers, especially due to lockdown, are some the major factors of Work From Home furniture industry in India.
The India Work From Home furniture market is segmented into Furniture Retail Outlets account for more than 70% of the market share in India WFH furniture market in 2020. The Furniture Market by Competition, Forecast & Opportunities has evaluated the future growth potential of India till 2026.
Conclusion
The Work from Home furniture is an aspect of creation for the rental industry. The market is also anticipating the future of the furniture industry as people are becoming more aware of their home furniture layouts, being able to spend maximum time at home.
Being a teenager in the Covid times is the most frustrating thing ever. We get it, all your plans of earning and being financially free were masked due to the pandemic. However, let’s get real, things have been going a bit easier than the beginning of the year and nows the time to get back on track.
If you’re a teenager or an adult looking for an internship or a job and are aiming to outdo your own expectations hereâs a personalized list of work from home job search portals that helped us get satisfactory jobs.
Work from home job search portals are not as easy as they sound. Currently, Millions of people are applying on all of the job search portals available on the internet no matter which language, crowd, or country they cater and for you to stand apart it’s extremely important for you to have a well-drafted resume. You can use several tools to draft a classy resume that makes your recruiter call you. Use tools like Canva or Google docsâs simple templates.
If you’re looking for getting experience and an internship for your side expenses, Internshala is perfect for you. Its recommended for teenagers who are stepping into the real world. Internshala also helps you draft a resume and uses that resume to suggest recruiters.
You can personally choose your preferences and chat with recruiters. Having a good fresher resume will eventually get you amazing opportunities to start out. Internshala is an amazing place for you to start your journey and explore more things that might interest you. The website also offers paid courses in case you’re interested to expand your skillset.
Benefits Of Remote Working
Naukri.com
Draft resume, give your keyword preferences and thatâs another quality work from home job search portal for you, only if you’re willing to work hard. Alright so, Naukri.com is also an amazing job portal for serious jobs. The website recommends you jobs according to the keyword that you set. Here though, you have to upload your own drafted resume and just fill in your personal details.
The job portal displays your search appearances and recruiter actions taken on your profile. The job portal allows you to save or star mark the jobs you like and apply to them at your own convenience. The work from home job search portal notifies you if a recruiter wishes to connect with you. You can also view his/her past referrals and you can connect with them.
Linkedin.
Facebook for Professionals. That’s Linkedin for you in a nutshell. Having a LinkedIn profile is quite necessary these days. It keeps a professional record of you and helps you grow each day. You can follow your friends, relatives, teachers and even your idols and be in touch with them professionally.
Pro-tip, if you’re a beginner optimize your Linkedin the best you can since most employers will definitely ask for your Linkedin profile link, and leaving the space empty is a straight no. You can save alerts for your favorite companies and preferred job options. Recruiters to connect with potential employees on Linkedin.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is one such work from home job search portal that values transparency, quality employees appreciate when theyâre looking for potential employers. Glassdoor helps you get satisfactory information about the companyâs ratings, salaries.
Amazingly, the website also sheds light on a companyâs hiring process. Sign up for Glassdoorâs emails to get daily updates about jobs that are suitable for you to get financially free.
FlexJobs is a popular work from home job portal. The website requires you to get a membership to keep your resume in the highlights. The membership can be easily purchased on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
Flex jobs does flex the number of days since the posting of the job so that you can be well acquainted with your time of submission. Having one of the largest databases, Flex jobs cater to people searching for part-time and full-time jobs seeking audience. Unlimited access to the website costs $14.95 a month however, fresh members can get a discounted price.
Industries That Work From Home
Remote.co
Sara Sutton, the founder and CEO of Flex jobs also founded Remote. co. Remote. co focus its attention solely on work from home opportunities and doesnât show much need for locations or telecommunication as the jobs simply work from home, jobs which have no need for your physical presence. Data entry, teaching, healthcare etc are some jobs that are made easy to find on remote. co. One can add personalized listings on the job search portal according to difficulty and pay levels.
We Work Remotely
With more than 2.5 million monthly visitors, We Work Remotely claims to be one of the largest job search portals in the world. Unlike some work from home job portals, We Work Remotely is referred by high-end companies such as Google, Amazon, and Basecamp.
This site doesn’t have a fancy interface and that makes searching convenient for remote jobs. The site also provides a number of work resources which include a list of companies and a job title of the top 100 remote companies which are currently hiring.
Elance and oDesk merged together to form the work from home job portal called Upwork. Both the parent websites were quite famous in the freelancing arena. Now, Upwork claims itself to be the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace. Freelancers looking for jobs at Upwork create profiles which highlight their skillset and experience along with their portfolios and job history.
Upwork connects clients and freelancers by allowing the clients to post job listings ie. the type of work they want to be done. They can view freelancerâs profiles and choose a freelancer that they think will get their work done. Freelancers here can work online and get paid once the commission is done without any offline communication.
Fiverr
If you’re a freelancer, this website should be your go-to. If you looking out to build your portfolio or starting out to gain some experience and earn while doing so Fiverr can be great for you! Most jobs or assignments on Fiverr cost around 5$ or in increments of 5$.
Fiverr is an absolute banger work from home job portal as it helps you meet potential clients from literally all fields. Here, the potential clients might post several jobs with the title âEdit my food advertisementâ if you’re an editor looking for editing gigs your freelancer version would say âWill edit a food advertisementâ. This work from home job portal focuses more on gigs and freelancing.
Who knew that remote working is going to be the new culture of working from home. Earlier, it was considered less of a job but as a customer service position at a below minimum wage. Now itâs a full-blown career. Managing remote working and remote teams is now a big responsibility. Here are remote working tips for employers where you can set up the path for your teamâs success.
Technology- âThe Need of The Hourâ has proved as one of the best remote working tips during Covid-19, when the global economy is shutdown. It has made us capable to get our job done flexibly, so we try to adapt to this technology. Employees and employers are keeping up with the changing needs of the changing hour. Some major industires are also found promoting the culture of Remote Working.
What is Remote Working?
Remote working stands not just for the advantages related to the involvement of staff, their lower rotation, however the conjointly nice potential for development. This will ensure productive time while working remotely. It’s an open-end chance to redefine what cooperation between an organization and a worker really is. However, your teamwork depends a lot on them, and the way you gift them with priorities and goals will facilitate them so they can notice the most effective solutions.
The goals should be mutual, set, and nominative, because of this your team’s motivation to implement them won’t decrease as a result of they’ll recognize what they are nisus for. If individuals work along, aiming for one goal, they share responsibility for the project.
Remote Working
Remote working is additionally a chance for different ways that of accounting for work, not essentially for hours worked, except for results.
Remote working has pulled up its sock over last years and thereâs been a growth in working remotely. If we see some trends then over the last 12 years, it has shown a growth of 159%. 91% growth in remote work over the last 10 years and a 44% growth in remote work over the last 5 years. Here is about some industries which have started promoting the new era of remote working.
Industries that work remotely
Why Remote Working Is the New Trend?
The comfort of being at home with flexible working hours
Set your own schedule of the day
Taking some days off for Self
Better time management
Less of stress and anxiety
Learn more skills at home
Benefits of Remte Working
The current global crisis has urged businesses to make it mandatory that their employees work from home. A significant adjustment is neededif you are a newb to working remotely. Because a bedroom can turn into a home office and taking conference calls half-dressed which is now your new formals. Tips to remote working for employees and employers can make things less stressful and more productive.
Remote Working Tips:
1. Maintain Regular Hours
Get up in the morning and the first thing in the mind is to set a schedule and stick to it, for godâs sake. Set up some guidelines because now you are working from home and sleep is going to hit you hard. You have to understand that working remotely means extending your day or starting early to compete with your side bench colleague. When itâs done, wrap up before you go to sleep; donât leave it as a mess. Use remote tools like Rescue Time will help you track daily activities.
Rescue Time helps you keep in track of time
2. Designate A Workspace
Remember if you have to stay mentally focussed for longer hours so, designate a workspace. Make your guest room a new home office and keep it less of a disturbing place so you can focus more. You just have to work in a comfortable environment with the right equipment at home so you can be efficient and productive. During a video call, make sure you donât have a distracting background or a noisy room.
3. Socialize With Team
Isolation and series of lockdowns have made us a great deal to connect with our friends and colleagues like earlier times. Donât forget that the basic key to remote working is socializing more and more with your team. You do have to let your team talk about common interests, ideas and if possible, try meetups for people in the same region, and in-person retreats. Such interactions will let you keep connected and included in the team. These interactive experiences will let you be more proactive about nurturing relationships.
4. Set Rules With People in Your Space
Set some ground rules with other people at your home or who-so-ever you share your space with when you work. Because, whatever your excuse maybe you canât let people service you just because you are working hard from home. Try and divide up domestic labor so that others at your place donât get frustrated.
5. Schedule Some Breaks
Try scheduling some 20 minutes tea break and take some time off. Give yourself adequate time during the day and try not to be lethargic all day. Because working like a donkey whole day wonât bring success to you. Itâs also not broken to your mind but also to some break to the processors of your PC/Laptops. A lunch hour and mini coffee/tea breaks can boost you up and re-energize you for the next work slot.
6. Use a VPN
Using a VPN which includes wi-fi at coworking spaces, libraries, cafes, airports which means a network that you actually donât control. Using a VPN at home will let you access some important websites so which your company provides you with. In that case, try leaving your VPN connected as often as possible because itâs always better to have it on than not.
Buy a new sim or set up a phone number for official calls. It can be a free VoIP service, such as a Google Voice. A separate contact will let you keep up the work-life balance.
8. Spare Some Time For Physical And Creative Activities
Maintaining a safe social distance up to 6 feet, try to get out of your safe space for some fresh air. Move some hands and leg, do some Zumba which will eventuallyboost you up with energy. Believe me, exercising gives you a nice life with less stress. Run your creative minds and draw something, or just grab some colors fill in some drawings.
9. “Show Up” To Conferences And Be Detected
Certainly, you may participate in video conferences and conference calls, however, it is a smart plan to attend facultative conferences generally, too. Take care to talk up throughout the meeting thus everybody is aware of you are on the decision.
If your leader is lax concerning obtaining you in a very space with different staff, raise to possess associate annual or semi-annual trip in your contract. It might be for annual coming up with, training, or team building. Or, tack it onto another business event, like a yearly business meeting, near the conference, or workplace vacation party. DO not wait around for somebody to ask you to the workplace or a happening. Be proactive.
11. Take Sick Days
When you are sick, take the sick time you would like. If you have got sick days as a profit, they are a part of your compensation package. Not taking them once you want them is like abandonment cash. If you are a freelancer while not sick days, it is terribly straightforward to comprise the other time-is-money lure and check out to power through sicknesses.
12. Hunt For Coaching Opportunities
When you are not in an associate workplace together with your fellow staff, you would possibly miss out on coaching and skills development courses that square measure educated in the flesh. Your company may even forget to feature you to its on-line coaching courses. Additionally, to top-down coaching pushes, if there’s a course you would like for career development, raise if you’ll take it. Also, if you get enough advance notice of forthcoming coaching that is on-the-spot, it would be a decent time to request a visit to headquarters.
13. Overcommunicate
Working remotely needs you to overcommunicate. Tell everybody who has to realize your schedule and availability usually. once you end a project or vital task, say so. Overcommunicating does not essentially mean you have got to write down a five-paragraph essay to elucidate your every move, however, it will mean continuation of yourself.
14. Be Positive
Once you work remotely full-time, you want to be positive, to the purpose wherever it should want you are being excessively positive. Otherwise, you risk sounding sort of a jerk. It’s unfortunate however true. Thus, embrace the exclamation point! notice your favorite emoji :D. You are going to want them.
15. Cash in of Your Perks
Once youâve worked in associate workplace full-time, it had been a struggle to seek out the time to pop one thing into the kitchen appliance that always. Operating remotely comes with distinctive perks. Cash all of them, you are it.
16. Do not be Too Arduous on Yourself
The most roaring remote staff have a name for being very disciplined. After all, it takes serious focus to induce a full-time workplace job done from associate unconventional house. Everybody lets their attention drift, generally. If you discover yourself operating one minute and booking flights for your forthcoming vacation successive, do not reprimand yourself gratingly. Instead, raise yourself whether or not folks in associate workplace settings do a similar issue. If the solution is affirmative, cut yourself some slack, then go back to figure.
17. Finish Your Day with a Routine
Just as you ought to begin your day with a routine, produce a habit that signals the shut of the workday. it would be a symptom off on a business electronic messaging apps, a night dog walks, or a 6 p.m. yoga class. You would possibly have an easy routine like motion down your laptop and turning on a favorite podcast. No matter what you select, make love systematically to mark the tip of operating hours.
There are many more countless advantages and tips of remote working but thereâs more to remote working tips for the team. There are some remote team tools that will simplify the process to manage remote workers and teams to keep them productive and grow them professionally.
Tools for Remote Work
Top Remote Work Tools for Remote Teams
Zoom
Evernote
Google Drive
ProofHub
Basecamp
Dropbox
Instagantt
Troop Messenger
Slack
World Time Buddy
Timezone.io
10to8
Krisp
Todoist
Blink
Chimp or Champ
Kickidler
Teamwork
Hub staff
WooBoard
iDoneThis
LiveAgent
Time Doctor
Nextiva
Appear.in
Top Remote Work Tools for Teams
Remote work is additionally a chance for different ways that of accounting for work, not essentially for hours worked, except for results. The days once you need to sit within the workplace to complete the specified eight hours full-time area unit over, this conjointly offers a lot of opportunities for businesses that may optimize their prices. You do not have to be compelled to maintain a workplace, equipment, buy coffee, and look out of fruitful Thursdays. Simply invest in tools that facilitate on-line work, and their area unit a lot of and a lot of them of prime quality.
A study 5 years ago showed a 13% increase in productivity once remotely working from home. The explanations expressed were the reduced range of breaks and leave. Not solely work from home, however, work from any place or a coworking place within the world is gaining a lot of votes. By giving staff a lot of freedom, limiting negative practices like micromanagement, we tend to enable individuals to grow and unharness their potential.
With bigger freedom comes bigger responsibility and with it even bigger worker involvement in what they are doing. this is often confirmed by the State of Remote Work 2019 report ready by the bird of Minerva Labs. per it, mobile staff with a thirteen higher likelihood will not wish to alter jobs for the subsequent five years. this is often one thing price finance in!
Remote Working Tips for teams can be hugely rewarding, but only if you keep your productivity up and maintain a healthy work-life balance which will eventually nurture your business relationships.
A virtual office is a service that enables employees and business owners to work remotely by providing a range of business functions accessible through the internet. The virtual office concept has become a popular workspace solution for freelancers and entrepreneurs who work from home but want a professional-sounding business address for their company. It gives business owners all the benefits of a physical office without the expense of renting an actual office. A virtual business address can help to add credibility to a business, which makes it easier to successfully attract clients.
A virtual office or virtual company refers to a company that may not have a fixed location yet functions as a unit to provide products and services to customers. It relies on the Internet heavily. Internet is used for document exchange, video conferencing for meetings and cell phones so employees can keep in touch. The office’s employees might work at home or in different cites and countries i.e. it involves working remotely.
Essentially, a virtual office is a service which provides a business owner with an office address and telephone number, communication and administration services, and access to meeting rooms, all without the need for physical office space.
Virtual Office Concept
A virtual office is part of the flexible workspace industry that provides businesses with any combination of services, space or technology, without those businesses having the capital expenses of owning or leasing a traditional physical office.
Due to the digital revolution, traditional working environment will never be the same. In many cases, work is no longer the place you go to, but rather the tools, skills, and devices you need to have to complete a task, no matter where your location is. Many startups, small firms, and solopreneurs(entrepreneur who works and runs their business alone) are discovering the benefits of virtual offices. For instance, it enables organisations to create and maintain a presence in a desirable location without the need to pay rent for an actual space.
A virtual office can be defined as various work environments that can be accessed with the help of Internet and computer technology. Technically, you and your team can work from any corner of the world as long as you have an Internet connection, an app or a collaboration or conference tool needed for your work, that gives the same ultimate result as any physical office.
The virtual office concept has a great scope in future. For instance, Covid-19 has made many employees unintentionally get used to work from home. This will give a great boost to the virtual offices in coming future.
History of Virtual Office
The virtual office concept has existed since the early 1980âs and has changed over the decades with technology. For example, a 1980âs virtual office included a fax service, now this has been replaced with a scan to email service, in which physical mail is scanned and emailed to the client. Even though virtual offices have been growing in popularity over the last few years, the idea has actually been around for several decades. Thereâs been an ongoing debate about who coined the term virtual office.
According to an article published in 1982 in Infoworlds, John Markoff, a journalist, Â first mentioned the term âvirtual office. In the article, Markoff wrote that a virtual office would be built around a portable personal computer and local area network that would expand working horizons dramatically.Markoff also stated that in the future virtual offices, employees will no longer be constrained by computer equipment or geographic location. They would be free to travel or to interact with others while communicating information with right tools. The physical offices would not have the central importance it does today.
The first virtual offices were accurately installed in 1989 by Ralph Gregory in Boulder, Colorado. Ralph founded âThe Virtual Office Incâ because is first child was born and he wanted to be able to work from home and spend time with her.
Also in 1989, after taking a business trip to Belgium, English billionaire businessman Mark Dixon founded his company Regus that provided clients with executive suites at affordable prices. Though the company went bankrupt in 2003, it was able to turn things around in less a year after receiving financing from a business parent. It is now a huge global company, listed on the American stock market.
In 1990, the first Internet search engine was developed by McGill University. In 1991, the World Wide Web was released to the public. Also in the same year, the first webcam was developed at Cambridge University. In 1992, âVirtual Officeâ became a registered trademark for the first time when Richard Nissen registered the term with the UKâs Intellectual Property Office.
The first Symbian phone, the touchscreen Ericsson R380 Smartphone was released in 2000. It combined a PDA with a mobile phone. In 2003, Skype was released to the public as conferencing tool that allowed free IP-based communications using microphone, webcam and instant messaging to individual consumers. Thus, the virtual offices started actually after this.
In the last decade, trend of Virtual Office has increased due to Internet
How Virtual Office works?
If your work involves traveling to client locations or other places away from your home base, you should probably consider buying a laptop computer rather than a desktop system. With a laptop one can always have their files, documents with them. Instead of laptop, one can also use tablets, iPad, etc. as these are many lightweight models out there that are very powerful. Just make sure you get a good carrying case that has a shoulder strap and room for your hard copy documents. Similarly, printer, fax machine, scanner, and other necessary peripherals to make a while system.
These Virtual offices operate as one unit to serve customers though do not exist physically. This type of set up is getting popular especially with startups and small businesses. The creation of web-based office productivity software and services, such as videoconferencing has helped drive the growth in virtual offices.
A virtual office concept can also lead to greater productivity, as its services free workers from administrative tasks, as well as travel. Each employee can work from the location that is most convenient, and the business is not restricted to hiring employees who live locally.
First of all, it saves the cost needed for the office space. The monthly cost of a virtual office is far less than that of a traditional physical office. After all, it has none of the maintenance and staff costs. A virtual office solution saves on overheads, as there is no need to rent physical space, buy equipment and furniture, or hire a receptionist.
With a virtual office solution, business owners get an address within a reputable area code that is equivalent to a physical office so this reassures clients that the business is legitimate. A virtual office can also be secured via a month-to-month lease, so there is greater flexibility if a user’s business changes.
As virtual office provides a mailing address, telephone answering, and videoconferencing services. Therefore, even small business can appear larger than it is. This is the reason why, it is so useful for startups and small scale businesses. It requires less management than the physical offices.
Working from home while using a virtual office address saves time and money that would otherwise be spent on a daily travel. It helps employees save their energy which is wasted in travelling. This helps them focus on work with more creativity.
Teams working virtually typically have the benefit of flexibility of working. So employees get more free time and flexibility. This helps maintain work-life balance in a better way.
Disadvantages of a Virtual Office
Virtual connections lack the social interactivity of face-to-face contact. Some believe that a disadvantage to working from a virtual office is the lack of social interaction between employees. Because many nonverbal cues can be missed in emails, phone conversations and video conferences and also messages can easily be misinterpreted.
Coordinating meetings may prove difficult especially if employees are residing in different countries. So the scheduling a meeting might create a problem due to differences across several time zones. Finally, collaborations will lack spontaneity because they have to be planned precisely to coordinate schedules and time zones.
On the downside, a virtual office means no physical office space is available to work from on a daily basis. The service package you will get from a virtual office space may be a limited one. For example, many packages come with limited use of conference rooms or limited teleconferencing and videoconferencing services.
Another disadvantage of working from a from a virtual office is the distractions and sometimes lack of motivation. These can sometimes cause morale and productivity to decline. Hence, a person needs to have self-discipline and work best independently with little supervision.
The COVID-19 has created such a big problem in the world that the people are not able to come outside from their houses. Either due to the govt. restrictions of lockdown or due to their own fear of corona virus, there is some or the other problem in the lives of the people. This pandemic has created such a worst situation that people are not even able to go on their work, even for earning a basic amount of livelihood. In such situation, the work from home has become the only and the ultimate choice for the people as well as for the companies and corporates which are not able to create a good business in this period of global lockdown. At this moment, it is visible in the market that many sectors are benefiting by work from home. Let us now analyse the complete report on work from home– effects on different sectors.
The Pros of Work From Home
Work from home means either no office or no big multi-storey office space. In other words, there will be no need of such a costly space having many other costly items and showpieces, which will be creating a good impression on your employees as well as on your clients. The company of different sectors are benifiting by work from home in a way that, they wonât have to pay for office space. If this is taken care by the companies then, they can save a big amount of renting cost. This saving can be used on the company itself or can be gives as an appraisal or a bonus to the employees. Not only this, the company will be having less burden on itself.
The company working in online sectors are benifiting by work from home donât have to pay for the small expenses of the employees. This includes pay for office supplies and for office snacks. Such a amount of money can be reinvested in the company itself for its own betterment of the company.
For the employees, the work from home means the ability to work like a freelances which indicates; work with anyone in the world. Freelancing concept will become popular in this case and this will help in connecting top companies with the very best software developers from all around the world, as the employees will now work on their skills not on the packages of the companies.
The employees will be less likely to quit in the work from home situation as they will be going to pick only those projects, which suits their skill set. Not only this, the companies will be getting a contract employees which will be having a better skill set and can easily work on their requirements.
There will be no office politics, if there will be no offices. This will ultimately help the company to get the better output of the employees, if there is no grudges of the employees for the company or for the other employees. In this condition, the employee will be happy and will be having a free mind from all the bad thoughts for the companies or for their colleagues.
Sectors which are able to work in work from home
Online Teaching
Teaching Sector- Work from Home
The online teaching and training sector is highly benefited by the work from home initiative and is now on its peeks. Every school, college, training institute is going for the online education and is talking about shifting this education system online in-order to be on the safer side, if such situation comes in the future. Not only this many platforms which helps in learning a new skill is now working with their full potential to attract the customers to learn online. The major examples for this online learning are Byjuâs, Unacademy, Udemy, EDX and many more. One of the Indian start-up named UpGrad, is providing you the chance to complete your post-graduation without going to college, just by studying online. No matter where you are, you can take admission in any of the integrated college and complete your online post-graduation degree.
The IT industry was on its boom before this pandemic and is showing no effects on it due to this global problems. The companies in IT sector are highly benefit from work from homeand are not having any problem working in their offices or while working from their houses. This is the only industry will is not feeling any type of problems and this industry can change the whole working ecosystem of the companies and their employees as now, many big, fortune companies are thinking of shifting their ecosystem to this work from home ecosystem. This industry consist of many types of businesses which are not having any type of effect, they are e-commerce, where people are now trying to order online rather going outside for any type of purchase. Second is the video conferencing platform which have helped in work from home to all the employee of different companies.
Freelancing is an evergreen sector which was not taken into consideration by most of the big companies but now, the companies are thinking about this sector as a highly beneficial at the time of work from home as this can help a company in many ways. There will be no problem if a company hires a freelancer as now a company can hire according to the skills required for a single project. They can hire on a limited period contract basis. No other types of expenses will be there in this case. In all it will be a win-win situation for both the sides i.e. for the employees as well as for a company.
Covid-19has shaken the whole world and brought everyone’s life to a halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home for more than 40 days now. Malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, and manufacturing units are all shut. Businesses and economy have taken a severe hit. Many organizations have asked their employees to work from home.
A company has to take permission from its client if the employee has to work on the client’s data from home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware, and software. Technology has made it easy to do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. Data security is of prime concern when working from home.
We asked a few founders about how they are keeping data and business cyber secured.
Sequretek is a Mumbai based Indian cybersecurity company with offices in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and the United States. We talked with Pankit Desai, co-founder and CEO of Sequretek, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with work from home, or WFH, becoming a norm.
In the pre-Covid 19 era, employees working across companies were issued laptops and other devices which were checked for security flaws and appropriate end point protection were loaded into them. The entire network architecture and end point devices were periodically patched and checked for security lapses. As WFH was enforced without any notice, companies didnât get the time or the option to issue cyber safe devices. In some cases, there werenât enough devices to allocate. Thus, employees are relying on personal laptops, tablets, and other gadgets over unpatched home networks and accessing, sharing, and trading possibly sensitive information with each other to do their work. One of the main concerns we see is that the same devices are being used for personal reasons like searching for a plethora of informationâfrom coronavirus updates to online purchases in your free time. So if hackers gain access to personal devices, they can acquire log details, texts, and there is a good chance that your credentials have been siphoned off. Those credentials can then be used to carry out various attacks. We are aware of certain cases where significant attempts have been made to steal credentials. In order to not be compromised, you can try a few things to help protect your system from such malicious attacks:
Hygiene: Start treating your personal assets as if they are corporate issued. Try not to access any external storage devices and websites that you would not be permitted if you were working in your corporate environment.
End point security: – Enterprises should make sure that all the devices (both company issued and personal) that are being used to access the companyâs network have updated security software with auto-enabled patching. Use freely available antivirus software or 30/90 days trial version products, if needed. – Avoid using Windows 7 as most security products donât support this operating system anymore. If you are still using it, ensure that the antivirus software is enabled. Windows 10 would be preferred as it comes with in-built security features. – Freemium antivirus: Avast / total AV; 30/90 day free trial: Norton/McAfee/ TrendMicro. Also, check out www.cert-in.org.in.
Network security devices and rules will need to be reconfigured to support external communication: – Enterprises should ensure that the security monitoring capability understands the difference between company owned and personal devices that are now plugged into the network. It will help understand any abnormal behavior and can bring down the number of false positives that may otherwise create a worrisome situation. – Install a firewall if one doesnât exist. Options range from low end to expensive ones. – Review the rules on firewalls to ensure they are valid and no gaps exist. For every mobile user, create a policy on the firewall for access. Secure the communication with VPN technology. – Most firewalls have a VPN feature. Use the same or open-source options. Try multi-factor authentication to prevent any abuse of credentials. – Enterprises can also implement geofencing to restrict traffic within their networks. For example, if most of the employees working from home on a project are from Mumbai, then the company can make sure that any IP outside the city will not be allowed to access the environment. – Also, lock the specific set of assets to an environment so that people from outside that particular geography canât access specific environments.
Datacentre: – Make sure your servers are patched and all recent vulnerabilities are fixed. Servers need antivirus software too. – All your OS/DB/network devices are hardened. – Review your applications and make sure they donât have any loopholes which can be exploited. – Ensure proper credentials and authentication mechanisms exist for your applications. – If feasible, take up services of security monitoring that can help you identify credible threats. – Windows Defender is free with all Microsoft operating systems. WSUS is free for Microsoft patching. -Several open-source vulnerability scanners are available: Burpsuite/Wireshark/NMap.
Surmount Business
Surmount Business targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises and help expand beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations, and enhance their capital efficiency. We spoke with Niraj Bora, the founder of Surmount Business, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with respect to the WFH culture.
Dropbox, google drive, etc. tools are safe for file sharing and also provide real time sync, separate team login, accidental delete recovery options, etc. as well. They have these options that makes sharing very convenient. Communication and project management tools like zoom, slack, and MS teams have good functionality and are helpful for work allocation, tracking progress, email and chat integration, cloud integration, etc. Paid subscriptions further increase the utility to include call recordings, multiple team member logins, etc.
Excess2sell is Indiaâs leading B2B excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We spoke with Mr Amit Kundra, Technology Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.
Work From Home (WFH) has been the biggest challenge across businesses during the lockdown, especially in India where businesses still run the traditional way. The lockdown imposed on us due to the COVID-19 has left us with no choice but to WFH and since most businesses, especially the SMEs had never experienced this way of working prior to now, it has been a paradigm shift for enterprises. In such times, the only way to achieve business process continuity is through digital transformation, work automation, and mobility.
We at Excess2sell.com managed to keep up the processes going in this crisis situation as our E2S Ecosystem has been architectured in such a manner that majority of our business processes are automated , run independently, and are tightly integrated with each other which had really helped to continue with our tech development, member on-boarding, activation, CRM support process and departments, and most importantly, customer facing apps seamlessly running without any hindrance factoring all security aspects.
On the Infrastructure side, we decided to manage it out by categorizing it under two heads with strict guidelines:
Use your own laptop.
Company desktop / laptop with guidelines issued to all employees. ⢠To beware of phishing emails. ⢠To avoid use of public Wi-Fi. ⢠To ensure home Wi-Fi routers are sufficiently secured. ⢠To verify the security of the devices that they use to get work done. ⢠To avoid clicking links in emails from people they do not know. ⢠To avoid installation of third-party apps should be confined to bonafide app stores. ⢠Daily backups.
Since security was a bigger concern than the speed of work while allowing employees to WHF and ensuring business process doesnât get stalled, we immediately actioned Privilege Access Management and transitioned our tech development completely onto offline mode. All new developments and product enhancements work are now being carried out on a separate secured Temporary Cloud bucket besides the ones regularly used considering best practices and team collaboration is happening via Slack.
Track of every login to the system, Multi-factor authentication, bitbucket and webmails monitoring processes should be strictly followed. Access to All High Availability Production Apps and environments is/should be restricted to a bare minimum mode and only VPN connectivity should be permitted in case of any critical or urgent release need.
To make communication smoother and faster with customers as well as internally, WhatsApp is being used as a part of enterprise communication along with SMS and email channels. Customers send their documents through WhatsApp or emails and they are tagged through Mobile or Web apps. Other tools that we recommend for efficient collaboration of the team in such times are Slack or Zoom.
These are hard times for businesses and IT budgets will be impacted in more than one way. But considering the new working normal and moving forward, businesses should invest more in IT to enable employees and customers to operate seamlessly in such unavoidable circumstances in the future. Businesses will definitely benefit by enabling and allowing complete digitization and mobility.
The need of the hour for every business moving forward is to be pro-active in defining business specific digital solutions rather than being reactive to similar kind of crisis conditions in future.
Volksara Techno Solutions
Volksara Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is an all-in-one provider of remedies pertaining to the comprehensive security and safety solutions and integration of products, systems, and services. We spoke with Saily Lad, Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.
Due to the extraordinary circumstances we are navigating, working from home has become the norm for a lot of people and companies, possibly for the first time in their lives. This has not been a common practice in the past and hence, there is a severe lack of a strong cybersecurity policy and standards to keep oneâs data safe. In fact, every time an employee connects to a corporate network from their homes, they are creating access points that can possibly be exploited by hackers. When this happens over 1000 times on a single network amid lockdowns, it becomes increasingly difficult to guarantee security of each and every connection.
What we can do in such a scenario is to encourage employees to use a VPN at all times, especially when working with sensitive data. Additionally, we should encourage the use of cybersecurity tools that are capable of performing simulated attacks across remote connections in order to assess risks. This can greatly help determine the extent to which our current settings and defenses are effective, and what changes need to be made to keep our organisations and data safe.
TechChefs Software
TechChefs Software focuses on product engineering and multi-cloud engineering. Pratap Simha, the founder and CTO of TechChefs Software, discussed about how to keep data and business cyber secured by working at home.
Today we live in a world where everything and everybody is interconnected. Technologies like cloud, automation, artificial intelligence, robotics…to name a few, have made life much easier to stay connected with one another, both at an individual and at an enterprise level. But these advancements have also brought security threats which can post significant threat to data, confidential information, and everything else. Fortunately, a host of antidotes are availableâ the basic ones being Firewalls, antivirus software, anti-spyware software, and password management software.
Over and above these, there a host of tools/activities which when diligently followed can have a significant impact on staying secure:
Encryption of data and creating back-ups: The two most important aspects in staying secured are (1) to prevent sensitive information/data falling into the hands of hackers and (2) rendering the data useless if it falls into the wrong hands. Here, encryption plays a significant role addressing the issue. In parallel, creating a robust data back up to fall back upon in the event of any breach.
Safeguarding the hardware: Much has been spoken about security from the software aspect. Theft of computers/laptops can also pose a threat. It therefore becomes important to secure the hardware system with a complicated and difficult-to-break-into password. Virtual Desktops on the Cloud are gaining popularity amount enterprises and eliminate the aspect of hardware theft.
Cyber Security Insurance: Insurance for data, a relatively newer concept, is gaining popularity. At the end of 2019, cyber security was valued at USD 1.97 Billion with projections to be at USD 3.05 Billion by 2022. According to a joint study by PwC India and Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the average cost of a data breach in the country has gone up to INR 11.9 Cr, an increase of 8% from 2017. The losses incurred due to breaches can be best mitigated by investing in cyber security insurance. It is estimated that the yearly cyber premium is in the range of Rs. 80 â Rs. 110 crores with IT/ITES and Banking & Financial sectors as early adopters.
Internally, creating a security-focused work place culture and educating all employees about the pit falls of an unsecured network makes it binding on every employee to be responsible for data security.
ADDA
ADDA is a must have for apartment residents. The App by ADDA is fully integrated with the ADDA SaaS platform which is meant for Community Administration. We spoke with San Banerjee, the co-founder and CEO of ADDA, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming the new norm.
There should always be a single secure entry point into all the digital systems and all other online systems should authenticate with this system. Email from Google Apps is ADDAâs single secure entry point and also serves as the company email inbox. We follow a default two factor authentication system that cannot be turned off by employees. During on-boarding their registered cell phone number is set as the second authenticator.
The other online portals we use like CRM, Support Ticketing, etc are all synced to the single Google mail for authentication. For an in-house system, whenever employees log in, an email with a 6 digit OTP is sent to their company email inbox. Without this OTP the internal systems will not be allowed. Also, if more than a preset number of tries are exceeded, we deactivate the account and also send an email to the admins. When an employee leaves, deactivating the company email is sufficient and that automatically removes their access to all other portals instantly.
Covid-19, which has shaken the whole world has brought everyone’s life at halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home. In this lockdown period, all malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, manufacturing units are shut. This will affect businesses and economy badly. Many companies have told their employees to work from home. But, its not possible for all companies like manufacturing units, theaters, malls to let their employees work from home.
People are also scared of going out. This coronavirus has made people’s lifestyle slow and it will take time for everyone including companies to come back on track after this long period of lock down. COVID-19 has put slowdown to a business everywhere. Travel, Hotel, Events, and Entertainment are the sectors that are suffering. But on the other hand, other sectors such as eCommerce, EduTech have benefited immensely.
But, it’s not easy for the company to let all employees to work from home. Company has to take permission from its client if employee can work on client’s information at home. Companies need tools for it. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software. Of course, technology has made it easy as you can do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. But, all companies have to make plans how they can make it operational.
We asked few companies about what tools and hack they are using to work from home.
AppViewX is a modular, low-code software application that enables Certificate Management as well as Network Infrastructure Automation and Orchestration using an intuitive, context-aware, visual workflow. We asked Anand Purusothaman, Founder, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
We are using Slack and Zoom to stay connected with our teams. We have leveraged these tools from quite some time as it helps us get real-time updates from our teams and also have the much needed face time for virtually connected teams. Cloud based content and collaboration suites are also proving to be invaluable in these times. Our team is very familiar with these tools, so adapting to a completely virtual model was easy.
Creating a task list to plan your day effectively is key. When you are working from home, especially now when you have your family with you, there could be a lot of distractions. So planning your tasks ahead, scheduling recurring meetings on a calendar and keeping the communication channels open with your team goes a long way. These are simple to follow, but very effective.
LegalWiz.in is focussed on helping early-stage startups and small businesses stay compliant and maintain legal hygiene while maintaining the highest transparency on deliverables. We asked Shrijay Sheth, Founder, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
We are fortunate to be living in a networked world and each colleague is online – given the nature of our work at LegalWiz.in, we have not seen much disruption. Technology is a great boon.We leverage technology (skype, zoom, work-flow tools) and have conference calls as well.
The HSE protocols – Health, Safety & Environment. Taking care of one’s Health, One’s Safety and Environment. These basic few precautions can help to ensure good health and prevention of COVID 19
Primus Co-Work
Primus Co-work partners with restaurants ,that open only during the night, to convert them into co-working places from Mon-Fri/10am-6pm. We asked Shardul Bayas, Founder, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
We are using Zoom conference calling and whatsapp. Create a daily ToDo list down the pyramid and ensure thorough followup to keep the team engaged and focused on work.
Mamaearth
Mamaearth is Asiaâs first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin free & natural baby and mama care products. We talked with Ghazal Alagh, C0-founder, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
Luckily, weâve always incorporated digital workplace tools even when we werenât working from home, so the transition wasnât too hard. We have standard communication tools like Slack and Zoom in place, along with productivity and collaboration tools like Trello. Then there are, of course, the regular sharing and storage tools â GSuite being the big one.
Excess2sell is Indiaâs Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
All our functions are equipped to work from home with complete backup in terms of hardware support, accesses to required data; and critical support to buyers and sellers as was available earlier.
We are using all technology tools like WhatsApp, Zoom and other apps to have team meetings/conferences with our employees. It is important to constantly keep in touch so that the team remains motivated and on the ball. Similarly we are encouraging our marketing team to engage with our customers on a regular basis to allay any fears or doubts they might harbour.
ZingHR
ZingHR is one of the oldest HRM providers. ZingHR is one of the few global ventures which offers almost all web/mobile-based modules from Hire to Retire Solutions with state of the art tech supporting those applications. We talked with Prasad Rajappan, Founder and CEO, about tools and hacks they are using for work from home during lockdown.
We are leveraging tools like Flock for our internal communication, Whatâs App, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Go-to-meeting to make it work.
Schedule – Plan – Collaborate – Praise – Work Harder – Rinse Repeat
Amidst COVID-19 pandemic, corporate offices have shut down asking their employees to work remotely from home. Getting accustomed to working from home will be a task for which employees will need to prepare themselves.
We talked with Khushaboo Jain, Co-Founder and COO at ImpactGuru.com about how to ensure productivity while working remotely. Here are 8 tips given by her to ensuring productivity while working remotely:
How to ensure productivity while working remotely | Khushaboo Jain
1) Creating A Workspace
The easiest thing to do, in order to get into a working mode, is to ensure that there is a designated workspace in your house. This may be a separate room dedicated for the sole purpose of being a home workstation, &/or a pre-existing space that can be turned into a work environment.
Either way, the work area should be clean and free from any clutter, and comfortable enough to not cause fatigue while working. Apart from this, you should ensure that the internet connection is stable and fast enough to allow for swift communication. If your work involves a lot of video calls/conferences, then you should also have decent lighting. Make sure that your background is clear and free from all clutter.
2) Having The Right Tools
After having the workspace set up, the next focus should be on ensuring that one has all the tools necessary to have a productive day. In terms of hardware, most companies are willing to provide laptops to their employees working from home. Any additional requirements such as a mouse or a communication headphone should be readily available. It is important to have all the required
softwareâs/programs/applications for your work and seamless communication pre-installed in your device.
3) Communication
The primary means of communication during this period will be emails, phone calls, video calls/conferences, and instant messaging. You will need to know how to use these mediums effectively, and also which one is most likely to get a quick response.
4) Know What is The Expected Outcome From You
Get a clear idea as to what the end objective of your task should be. This will let you work more effectively, and reduce the chances of errors that will require revisions later.
5) Setting Timelines
If you are to collaborate with someone for a project, make sure that both have set aside time to communicate and update the other. You are accountable, so ensure that your timeline is set in such a way that you can achieve your objectives for the day, while also having time to make any quick revisions.
6) Avoiding Distractions
Your family, friends, pets and household chores will all be distractions you are not been prepared for. In these situations, you will have to know how to set up boundaries and let everyone know, that even though you are at home, it doesnât mean you are available.
7) Know When To Unplug
Likewise, it is also important to let your company know when you are available and when you are not. Have a specific time after which you can stop concentrating on work and can get back to your home mentally. Ideally, it can be the same as your punch-out. This will also help you stick to the timeline more effectively.
8) Take Care Of Your Health
Now, more than ever, it is essential for you to take care of your health, both physical and mental. If you feel fatigued at your regular workplace, the options to unwind are limited, but at home, you have more and better options. You could take some time off to exercise, relax or cook.As long as it doesnât affect your timeline, you are good to go.
For employees working from home now, accountability will be the most important factor when it comes to them being as efficient as they can. With most of oneâs travel time cut down, an accountable employee can prepare himself/herself better for work, with respect to health and skills.
ImpactGuru.com is Indiaâs leading healthcare financing platform for patients, raises money online for medical expenses via crowdfunding. It aggregates a large number of online payments to allow any individual requiring financial assistance to raise funds for medical expenses – be it cancer, transplant, accident, or any medical emergency.
About Khushboo Jain:
Khushboo Jain co-founded crowdfunding platform ImpactGuru.com in July 2014 and has served as the companyâs Chief Operating Officer. In addition, she heads ImpactGuruâs Communications, Design and Brand teams. Khushboo Jain is actively involved in the companyâs marketing and communications strategies, community building activities, the ImpactGuru product usersâ experience, and with ImpactGuruâs work with non-profits.
Khushboo was recently featured amongst the Top 15 winning women entrepreneurs at NITI Aayog & United Nations, 2019 Women Transforming India Awards. Khushboo Jain began an entrepreneurial career and co-founded ImpactGuru.com with a mission to help Indiaâs people find crowdfunding solutions for patients struggling to fund critical illnesses.
The coronavirus aka COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread with no signs of fading away. Preventive measures taken by the public sector and by global industry are already having widespread effects. Most of the businesses around the world are facing many challenges and lower demands of their services & products. Meanwhile, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has said the global economy may now grow at its slowest rate since 2009.
With the COVID-19 virus spreading to dozens of countries globally, the travel industry is working hastily to both prevent the spread of the virus and navigate through heavy economic uncertainty & slowdown. Now, with the globalized world going into partial or complete lock down over the Covid-19 pandemic, startups in the travel sector are facing a huge stress test as well as immediate interruption to business because public health concern has increased and entire populations are encouraged or even forced not to travel.
Travelers are reconsidering travel plans both to prevent infection and avoid being quarantined. Due to this, airlines are also facing a huge fall in bookings. Airlines have ceased flights to the hardest-hit areas and reduced capacity elsewhere. Similarly, many hotels are empty or facing declining fall in occupancy; conference organizers are losing major events, local tour operators have far fewer customers due to travel avoidance of customers as experts say that thereâs no sugar-coating: Itâs rough out there right now. Lean times are inevitable for the travel industry – that much is for sure. But among the furrowed speculation and fearful reports, some of the startup founders have been busy formulating ideas and plans catalyzed by the recent crisis.
No to non-essential travel
With restrictions on travel and large business events, many startups, IT majors and corporates have ruled out non-essential domestic and international travel. In a statement, IT major Wipro said: âWipro has suspended travel to and transit through mainland China, including Hong Kong and Macau, until further notice. Employees have also been advised to avoid non-critical travel to Singapore, South Korea, Japan, and Italy.â As many companies have asked their employees to work from home, it has caused decrease in travel. Asheesh Chanda, CEO of digital wealth management startup Kristal.AI, said all necessary precautions as advised by the government were being taken. âKristal.AI operates in three locations – Singapore, Hong Kong, and India. Non-essential travel between offices is currently discouraged. We have asked all employees across locations to work-from-home.”
In the same way, many travel tech companies have seen a spike in cancellations. In general the impact is heavy. While some have stated that demand is dropping off a cliff but itâs not as bad as they thought â but it is definitely heavy. Bookings are down by almost half Itâs seeing similar changes in booking behavior. Advanced booking has come down drastically. TravelPerk told that itâs currently dealing with a drop in business globally of around 50%.
Lockdown due to COVID-19 has resulted in low demands of bookings
The co-founder and CEO of TechCrunch, Johannes Reck said, âThis is the most severe shock that Iâve seen in the last 10 years. The irony of Europe is that we had a fantastic start to the year, consumer sentiment was high, and then it fell off a cliff a few days ago.â An airline trade group said last week that the industry will lose as much as $113 billion in sales because of the coronavirus pandemic. Also, Booking.com withdrew its forecast, citing the worsening impact of the virus on travel.
Here’s some of the useful tips and tricks for staying afloat in these tough times â
Look for bright spots
If your startup has a global focus, look for bright spots of travel demand. Not every area is affected by travel restrictions and flight bans. For instance, depending on your business model and market, one can switch to targeting short journey. Another tactic is to target travelers from areas less affected by the virus. Take a methodical look at current travel conditions and compare that with your target demographics. Wherever you find opportunities, youâll need to balance pricing with market share and thus customers can be attracted to use your services.
The travel community has a unique perspective with many âboots on the groundâ i.e. contacts in different places around the world. So ask your suppliers, distributors, partners what is happening on their end. So, by gathering information from them, your expertise can be utilized to provide customers what they are actually needing at this time. This can help with lowering cancellations while also keeping your team informed on the virus.
Create your USP
Travelers now face uncertainty and lack clarity over when, where, and how to travel due to constraints. If your startup has a unique selling proposition that addresses some of these challenges, work on it! Try to be creative and see how you might be able to apply your product to add new or unexpected value to the current global situation. Or, perhaps there are aspects of your business model that could be improved a bit to increase relevance in these circumstances.
Partner up with others
Now is the time to get creative with partnerships and building relationships. By joining hands with other startups which are also facing the same challenges, new solutions can be found to deal with current circumstances. As you consider potential partners, look for those who may be especially hard in this climate and needing cost-cutting or short-term revenue.
Itâs important to remember that no crisis lasts forever and to attempt to look to the future. This isnât the worldâs first recession and it wonât be the last. Itâs not the worldâs first pandemic and it wonât be the last. The key for entrepreneurs is to keep a cool head about you, donât do anything and adopt a war footing while your company struggles through choppy waters for 12 to 18 months in the wake of this pandemic. When the crisis recedes and the courts reopen, your company will need to provide an accounting of its obligations and answer for any it has fallen short on in the meantime.
Yash Gupta
