About four months ago we heard of a mysterious virus that was causing pneumonia like symptoms and today, much of the world as we know it has come to a standstill. More than 4 billion people around the world are in some form of
lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The lockdown will be over one day and time will come to rejoin our work, but given the nature of the pandemic, everything is about to change. At a recent ETRise Webinar,
Kanika Tekriwal, Founder and CEO,
JetSetGo and
Ryan Lowe, Partner, People Advisory Services,
EY India talked about the changing face of businesses in a post-lockdown world. Edited excerpts.
Economic Times (ET): How will the world be when the lockdown gets lifted in India?
Ryan Lowe (RL): It seems that we are slowly moving towards a gradual removal of the lockdown for some sectors parts of the
economy. The government doesn't have any other alternative other than focus on lives and livelihoods. The biggest challenge businesses will face will be restarting their operations. Even while a larger part of the enabling ecosystem continues to be in lockdown. Parts like public transportation, etc., is likely to continue to be in lockdown and within the constraints of what we are allowed to do, we're going to have to ensure that we get our businesses back on track. And that will be the biggest challenge for
business houses.
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Kanika Tekriwal (KT): What I've learnt so far is people are going to come back very different. It's not going to be the same human being you left before the lockdown and I think we're going to see a very gradual opening up of the world. At the same time you're going to see very changed, people who need to be handled very differently. I don't think life would be the same ever again. We will see more compassionate and humanitarian requirements to deal with. It's going to be businesses that are more humane that will win and not the ones which focus on performances going forward. We have to keep in mind how do you keep these things together, how do you open your office and keep social distancing while managing your costs. Accept that the same way you worked earlier has changed and make work from home a way of life.
ET: Kanika you are in the aviation sector and your business has continued to function even during the lockdown. How difficult was this for you to keep operating while everything around you is shut?
KT: It is a difficult time, but luckily for us, it came together very well. We worked collectively. However, at the same time the very basic things that we took for granted earlier was different. I was personally keeping track of every single member getting to the airport and back home. The amount of effort we put in 50 flights in a day, we were putting the same amount in keeping one flight now. So you're learning new processes every day. We are learning how to make sure that your workplace is safe. We are learning how to sanitise aircrafts and office spaces, but there is no guide book that we can follow under these unique circumstances.
ET: There are two aspects to the lockdown, one is operations for offices and the other is operations for manufacturing units. Both have to be treated differently. How does one open offices once the lockdown gets over?
RL: The government will have a big say in this. They are going to allow the relaxation of the lockdown in a phased manner. We are going to have to really go through a series of steps to ensure that we are complying with those government guidelines, but at the same time, ensuring that our people are safe, and are able to be active as well, because at the end of the day, we have to run a business.
These steps include:
- A detailed planning activity, where we need to identify which employees really need to come to work, even after the lockdown is lifted. Others can continue to work from home. That clarity is important.
- Companies should ensure transportation for their workers. At the offices there should be a series of checkpoints testing can be done. There should be holding areas for colleagues to ensure that a red flag can be raised if someone's feeling unwell.
- We have to ensure there is no crowding in our office spaces, ensure that only 25 or 50% of the workspace is actually occupied.
- A similar set of actions need to be done with our support stuff including security guards, receptionists, cafeteria staff. We have to ask if we really need all of them to come into work in the beginning or come in a staggered manner.
These have to be well thought out efforts to ensure that while we open up our offices, we take every step possible to minimize the impact on employees and ensure their well being and safety.
KT: We took a lot of measures, but to put it in a nutshell we did the following:
Amidst all this the work processes are slowing down, and expenditure has gone up dramatically. Our sales have gone down drastically, however it is taking double the cost to deliver the product. So this is going to be a vicious cycle and here to stay for a while.
ET. Are there different parameters to follow for big and medium-sized companies after the lockdown ends?
RL: Here certain things are non-negotiable. So every organization irrespective of its size will have to do testing, sanitizing of the workplace, have a doctor available. There will be other elements that are easier for a smaller company, but pose significant challenges for a large company. This can include transportation. I don't think a larger organization will be able to take control of the commute or put people in guest houses or other accommodation. That will put significant financial strain on a lot of organizations. So there will be a reduction of pace of operations. The focus has to be on enabling work from home, wherever possible, so that it's just a proportion of the employees that are impacted. Even when we open up not everyone will be allowed into office at the same time. You have to create rosters where teams come in at certain times during the day complete their work, and leave. So all of those will have to be taken into consideration and planned out so that we are able to manage this for larger organisation.
For complete details on operating your business in the post-lockdown world, please watch the embedded video above.