Work from Home Archives | Cosmic Development

How to Manage a Business During the Coronavirus Outbreak

Viktorija Nikoloska — Thu, 26 Mar 2020 11:49:24 +0000

“How to manage a business during the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19)?” is probably the most frequently asked question that company owners ask themselves these last few months. Coronavirus is the most recent disease that spread throughout the world in a fast and unpredictable way. And now, we are all aware that this situation will last for a longer period of time, or at least until scientists discover a cure. To slow down the spread of COVID-19, we need to stay home and isolate ourselves from other people. Therefore, we need to adjust to the idea of working online. Similarly, every company owner is encouraged to learn how to manage a business online, as long as this is possible.

Many businesses are unable to ask their employees to finish their daily tasks from home, especially if they work in factories, transport, health workers, supermarkets, pharmacies, etc. However, those business managers who can let their workers work from home will not only take care of the health of their employees but will also keep their business running during the outbreak. Working remotely may be very challenging, both for the employees and for the business owners. Therefore, we decided to answer the five most frequent questions that company owners ask themselves in the period of Coronavirus. Read the answers to those questions if you want to discover how to manage a business during the Coronavirus outbreak.

Stay Informed about the Coronavirus Outbreak
To successfully manage a business during the Coronavirus outbreak, company owners must stay informed about the current situation at all times. And not just the situation in their country of residence, but also on a global level. The best way to do so is through using tools that provide real-time updates about the COVID-19 outbreak. One of the most popular Coronavirus dashboards that provide accurate and real-time information about the outbreak is John Hopkin’s Coronavirus Resource Centre map. This dashboard informs about the total confirmed, recovered and deceased cases globally and separately for each country in the world.

In addition to Coronavirus dashboards such as the one previously mentioned, business managers can use various other tools to prevent and treat COVID-19. One of those tools is the COVID-19 Dialog that delivers information from trustworthy Canadian medical sources. This tool includes a chatbot system named Chloé which collects personalized information from each user and determines the user’s individual situation. Every employee and business manager can utilize this free-to-use tool in order to get more information about their personal health conditions.

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Get Financial Support
Company owners who encountered a problem to manage a business during the Coronavirus period can get financial support in various forms and from different organizations. In Canada, for instance, small businesses can receive a 10 percent wage subsidy for the following three months from the Government. According to Toronto’s City News, the Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that the Canadian federal government will provide $27 billion to companies who face a financial crisis due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The Government in Canada may also help companies to manage a business by offering work-sharing programs, loans, income support, deferral of payments for income tax, or by purchasing order financing.

In addition to the help coming from the government in Canada, active funders also offer aid to startups in the form of venture capital. Moreover, Facebook offers $100 million as part of its grants program for small businesses in over 30 countries. And finally, the six biggest banks in Canada have decided to provide their customers with solutions that will help them overcome the Coronavirus period. It is up to the company to decide which financial support they would get in order to surpass this hard economical period and stock market crisis.

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Use Free Tech Tools
During the outbreak of COVID-19, companies must first understand the virus effects in order to better manage a business remotely. That way, business managers and owners will be able to revise their strategies and discover new opportunities for their companies. Moreover, when managing a business remotely, owners need to adapt to working online and hold all of their meetings and conferences from their homes. Luckily, during the Coronavirus outbreak, many companies have made their online tech tools free to use for online presentations and webinars, as well as for digital conferences and networking events. Some of those tools are the following: Zoom, Google Hangouts, Microsoft Teams, Go2Meeting, AirMeet, Hey Summit, Hopin, etc. In addition to these free tech tools that can be used for managing a business remotely, company owners may also need to use tools for managing their accounting processes online.

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Continue Managing the HR and Recruitment Processes Remotely
When managing a business online, company owners need to maintain regular Human Resources (HR) and recruitment processes and continue performing them remotely. Primarily, they need to continue searching for permanent or temporary candidates and make sure that the new employees they hire will get a positive onboard and recruitment experience. Furthermore, HR and recruitment specialists are recommended to use new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) in order to increase their efficiency during the Coronavirus outbreak. One of those tech solutions is Hire Vue, which enables AI-driven predictions for better hiring opportunities.

In addition to the AI technology for HR and recruitment procedures, business managers may also create a new HR policy that will be valid only for the period of the COVID-19 outbreak. This policy is supposed to contain information about the actual Coronavirus situation and the prevention measures that the company implements. Moreover, every company owner who wants to manage a business during the COVID-19 outbreak must also develop a policy for employee’s illnesses, leaves of absence, medical clearances, travel plans, etc. To learn how to create such an HR policy, follow the latest updates in your country of residence.

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Strengthen the Company’s Culture
The final step that owners need to implement in order to manage a business successfully during the Coronavirus outbreak is to strengthen their company’s culture. This can be easily done by using various free tech tools that enable video conferencing. For instance, companies can organize video calls for each of their teams in order to enable their employees to work together even they are at remote locations. Then, they can also arrange video calls during lunch or coffee breaks so that the team can spend the break together. Furthermore, business managers may also coordinate virtual lessons for their employees on different topics, depending on their mutual interests. And finally, company owners may also help their employees engage in activities outside of work. For instance, employees may use applications for virtual movie night weekly, or online exercise apps that will motivate them to work out together from their homes.

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The post How to Manage a Business During the Coronavirus Outbreak appeared first on Cosmic Development.

Work from Home in the Time of Coronavirus

Viktorija Nikoloska — Thu, 12 Mar 2020 13:32:19 +0000

Work from home has been trending over the years, but with the pandemic situation of Coronavirus throughout the world, remote work has been considered not only as a trend but as a prevention measure as well. Nowadays, as the Coronavirus is spreading with the speed of light throughout the world, companies have started considering this option to let their employees work from home. Organizations that have no strict requirement for their employees to be physically present at their offices allow them to work from home during the situation at hand. It seems that companies that operate online count on working remotely as a solution that will help their businesses to keep running while taking care of the health safety of their employees.

In the past few days, business owners of all types of companies (from small start-ups to big corporations) have sent their employees to work from home in order to prevent further spread of the Coronavirus. This measure is considered as a small victory in the war against the Coronavirus. Through the work-from-home option, employees will be less exposed to potential carriers of the virus and will be able to protect the society from further escalation of the situation.

At the beginning of this week, some of the major companies such as Google, Microsoft, and Apple have announced that they are letting their employees work from home, due to the rapid spread of the Coronavirus. To those of you who are reading this article and are not fully aware of what Coronavirus exactly is, or how to protect yourselves from it, continue reading the following sections. Below, you will also discover advice on how to make working remotely more productive, and you will be able to find out which companies released free-to-use tools for online working during the period of Coronavirus.

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What is Coronavirus (COVID-19)?

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a new strain of coronaviruses (CoV) that has not been identified in humans before, and that first appeared in December 2019 in Wuhan (China). Coronaviruses are already known to cause illnesses from a simple cold to more severe diseases like the ones from the past years: MERS-CoV (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) and SARS-CoV (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). COVID-19 is a zoonotic disease that can be transmitted between animals and people. It is believed that the Coronavirus was transmitted from an animal onto a human being in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan (China).

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties. In more severe cases, infection can cause pneumonia, severe acute respiratory syndrome, kidney failure and even death.” To prevent the infection from spreading, people must wash their hands regularly, cover their mouths and noses when sneezing or coughing, and they need to eat only thoroughly cooked meat and eggs. Furthermore, people are advised to avoid any contact with people who show symptoms of respiratory illness.

Advice for Protection from the Coronavirus

Since the Coronavirus shows symptoms as a regular cold, people need to take precautionary measures in order to protect themselves from getting the virus. Below are given important advice from the WHO that people need to do and avoid the spread of the coronavirus:

Keep hands away from eyes, mouth, and nose – One of the most important advice is to avoid touching eyes, mouth and nose with hands because the hands can easily transfer the virus if they are contaminated.

Wash hands regularly – People need to wash their hands frequently either with soap and water or with an alcohol-based hand rub, and therefore kill all possible viruses that are on their hands.

Keep a social distance from others – When someone is coughing or sneezing, people need to make sure to maintain a social distance from them of at least one meter (three feet). This distance is preferable because the small liquid droplets in the sneeze or cough may contain the Coronavirus and can be breathed in, thus transferring the disease to another person.

Practice respiratory hygiene – This means that people should always cover their mouths and noses when coughing or sneezing either with tissues or with their bent elbows to avoid spreading the virus through their small liquid droplets.

Seek medical help – People who have a fever, a cough, or a breathing difficulty must seek medical attention. To do so, they need to follow the directions given by local authorities and call in advance so that the health care provider can direct them to the appropriate health facility that deals with Coronavirus.

To stay up to date with the latest development of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19), follow the news published by the WHO or by local authorities in the country. Moreover, to discover more about the precautionary measures against the Coronavirus, click this link and find out about the protection against it, as instructed by the WHO.

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Using Technology and Work from Home against the Coronavirus

Within the last few days, big corporations such as Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have decided to allow their employees to work from home, due to the increased number of Coronavirus cases. Google decided to close its offices in China and canceled traveling to mainland China. They also sent employees from their Dublin office to work from home. Similarly, Amazon restricted traveling to and from China and required people who had to travel to stay at home and work remotely for a period of two weeks after the trip. They also told their employees in Seattle to work from home till the end of March. The same decision may soon apply to Amazon’s offices in New Jersey and New York. Moreover, Microsoft told its employees in China to work from home.

Furthermore, Apple restricted all trips to and from China and shut down all stores and offices there. Their CEO also allowed employees all over the world to work from home. Twitter sent all of its employees to work remotely and suspended all events and business trips. Facebook closed the offices in China and allowed its employees to work from home. Spotify also allowed its employees to work from home for two weeks.

In addition to the decisions for working remotely, big organizations decided to aid the remote work by offering free collaboration tools for online use. Google even announced that they offer their free tools Google Hangouts Meet, Google Drive, Google Suite to everyone in need. Microsoft also allowed free usage of its products Microsoft Teams and Skype. In addition to these basic tools of Google and Microsoft that many people use on a daily basis, other tech companies have also made their products available to employees who decided to work from home. Take a look at the list we offer below to discover the top ten free-to-use tools of our choice for working remotely:

Google Hangouts Meet – Video conferencing tool offered to schools and businesses to keep them connected in the time of Coronavirus.

Google Drive (and Google Suite) – Team collaboration platforms that allow coworkers to share and work on the same docs, spreadsheets, and presentation documents.

Microsoft Teams – Teamwork hub in Office 365 that keeps in one place the team’s chats, meetings, files, and apps.

Skype – Microsoft’s platform for video conferencing.

Slack – Collaboration hub that offers communication and tools in one place for remote employees and helps them stay productive regardless of their work location.

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Toggl – Time tracker that measures the time spent working on a particular task.

Zoom – Cloud platform for online video communication which has lifted the limit on its free version in China due to the Coronavirus.

Webex – Collaboration platform that has expanded its free offer in all countries where it is available.

Dropbox – Smart workspace that offers file storage and sharing options.

One Drive – Microsoft’s personal cloud storage.

To discover a list of other technologies that are made available during the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19), click here and get a full list of all products that can be used when working remotely.

Tips for Better Management When Working Remotely

Create and follow a schedule of tasks for each day of the week.
Assemble meetings one after another without losing time in between.
Change the home-office environment every day, if possible, to avoid feeling suffocated by spending all days in one room.
Do not work while wearing pajamas!
Plan your work breaks ahead and take them regularly.
Get used to receiving audio and video calls from other team members in order to stay in contact with them at least once per day.
Work uninterruptedly with the “Do Not Disturb” option.
Find ways that will help you increase your productivity (listening to loud music, watching your favorite series during the break, or working out for 15 minutes in between meetings).

When working remotely, employees need to plan ahead and get well organized, because the line between working and procrastinating can be very thin. Here are some tricks that will help employees get their work from home done:

We all know that working remotely may have its own pros and cons, but in a situation like this one, the best thing we can do is put into practice all of these tips and try to implement this work-from-home policy. Cosmic Development is one of the companies that allowed its employees to work remotely during the period of Coronavirus. Let us all hope that these types of precautionary measures will help us in the war against Coronavirus and that soon we will become victorious and get back to our daily activities. Till then, follow the WHO’s advice and make sure you are smarter than the Coronavirus.

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