Strategic Emergence™ from the COVID-19 Pandemic: Part One - People

The Coronavirus pandemic has caused a great deal of uncertainty in all aspects of business and life. There are more questions than answers, making it difficult to create plans for a safe reopening.

Strategic thinking is needed at this time for organizations to identify where they are now and what it will take to get through the pandemic. Business leaders need to block time during this pause to think things through. This will enable them to create a vision of what a successful emergence looks like, and the strategies to achieve it. The end result will be a tailored re-open road map that addresses the organization’s unique requirements.  

Organizations of all sizes are struggling with important decisions ranging from how to modify their workspace floor plans to managing budgets against drastically reduced revenue. Even businesses that have stayed open and, in some cases, seen increased revenue, need to make a plan for changes in staff, inventory, product availability, supply chain issues, and employee safety.

Through all that we have already endured, and the unknown that will be here tomorrow, there is the opportunity for business leaders to think strategically and create their individual visions of the future. There is the opportunity to emerge from the pandemic in a better place than when it started.

People

From the first day in business, Orion Global Solutions has structured all our services around people, process, technology, and sustainability (for both business and the planet). It is the backbone of how we do business and its relevance could not be more important than it is today.

Strategic Emergence™ starts with people. People are the greatest asset to every organization, and we’ve all been affected by the pandemic. Many people are scared to go back to the workplace. According to McKinsey and Company, companies need to focus on “driving a dual agenda: protecting lives and livelihoods.”

Part of protecting people is identifying the greatest risks. In additional to everything a business knows about it’s own locations, there’s more to understanding the dangers just outside the front door. Organizations can leverage tools to help uncover information that is vital to developing strategies. One tool is Tableau’s free COVID-19 Data Hub which offers visuals on data such as new coronavirus cases, unemployment claims, and government policies. Another tool is Salesforce Maps, that plots an organization’s own data onto a map where it can overlay additional data such as localized COVID-19 outbreaks. Armed with this type of geographic information, business leaders will understand what challenges that need to be overcome by employees in those areas.

Communication

Communication is key to understanding how employees feel about returning to the workplace and delivering messages of empathy and inspiration. “Give people time to mourn the past,” says Ken Maros, director of people science at CultureAmp, in a recent Bloomberg article. “What’s probably going to be running through people’s minds is: ‘Everything else has been disrupted, I just wanted the office to be like it was’.”

In their Work.com COVID-19 Response Playbook, Salesforce suggests, “define and communicate the work plan, making it easy to provide feedback; reinforce leadership transparency and visibility.”

Small changes can make a big impact and big changes are also necessary. In addition to making sure everyone who enters the workplace has access to face masks, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers, the layout of the space may need an overhaul. A recent Business Insider article identifies other strategies for a post-pandemic office redesign. First and foremost, “the human aspect of this can’t get lost in the conversation.”

Some ideas outlined in the article include:

·  Spacing microwaves and other appliances in the office further apart

·   Installing more sophisticated air filtration and HVAC systems

·   Adding partitions between desks or rearranging the desks into a staggered design

·   Using low-touch or no-touch fixtures

·   Taking the temperature of everyone as they enter the workspace

Community

Employees are just one part of the people puzzle. Businesses need to understand how their vendors, customers, and partners are managing the pandemic.

Salesforce’s Response Playbook advises that “listening is a key muscle to flex in this track. Ask your team to listen through surveys, one-on-one meetings with customers, analysis of customer service trends, and more. Translate insight into action and extend that knowledge through your entire ecosystem of suppliers and partners.”

The Salesforce platform offers many apps and tools that help organizations stay in touch with everyone in their community – internal and external. Engaging employees, customers, partners, and suppliers is as crucial now as it’s ever been.

Developing the strategies to emerge as a strong business in a post-pandemic economy is difficult. Engaging with all the people that impact business decisions is the best way to let them know they are important. In additional it listening to employee sentiment, it’s also important to reach out to peers, peer groups, and consultants, who are in contact with many organizations.

Part of the Orion Global Solutions’ Strategic Emergence™ road map is frequent conversations with all CEOs, our clients and partners about how the pandemic has affected their businesses. We’ve learned a great deal from these conversations – their challenges and their solutions – and continue to evolve our road map while building stronger relationships as we listen and learn.

Click here for Part Two of this series – Process. It covers how to evaluate processes and procedures!

For more information about Salesforce Maps, check out our recent blog post, How to Recover Your Sales Team From COVID-19