By: David Ng, Chief Revenue Officer, KPISOFT

The pandemic has left us all in uncharted territory, affecting all sectors of work around the world. The expected global economic impact could amount to USD 8.8 trillion in losses expected as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

The situation is similarly bleak in Malaysia, with losses close to RM 1 billion expected as a result of closed businesses during the Movement Control Order (MCO) and Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO).

As Malaysia enters its Recovery Movement Control Order (RMCO), many uncertainties still remain with regards to the rate at which the nation is able to bounce back.

For organizations, business continuity will continue to be a challenge, requiring innovative solutions and strong leadership that helps them stay not only afloat, but competitive in the long run.

Already, dispersed and distributed teams — one where employees are able to perform their tasks outside of the traditional work environment – has become a reality.

Companies like Google and Twitter, for example, have declared that most of their staff are able to work from home or remotely on a permanent basis and not just during the lock down.

While many businesses will need to consider if the nature of products and services they offer allow or afford them to do so, or if their culture is conducive to this, it is clear that swift action is required of leaders today so they adapt to thrive tomorrow.

In order to combat and curb the spread of the virus, businesses that drive our economy will need to adhere to social distancing, sanitation norms, and stay in compliance with evolving government regulation on operations.

People are the lifeblood of any organization and as such, employees are understandably concerned about their health and safety as they return to offices.

Tackling the Challenges 

In order to assuage concerns about safety, senior management teams must learn to communicate more transparently and efficiently to keep their teams motivated and safe.

Besides clearer communication, efficient resource management will also become imperative for organizations as they navigate these uncertain times and emerge victorious.

This will require strong leadership and the right infrastructure that supports both organization and employee goals. As uncertainties rise and safety become a priority, maintaining a constant level of high performance at work can be challenging.

While this is to be expected, organizations must find ways to empower their workforce. Given the current climate, creative solutions need to be implemented such as organizing virtual socializing sessions.

Constant visibility over how they contribute to a shared organizations purpose and goals is vital to inspire them to perform to their best ability, at the highest capacity.

Continuing to provide skills training will also be necessary to ensure employees keep abreast of the latest and most relevant best practices and skills.

Keeping that momentum going for an organization from top to bottom will prove to be another challenge – but the right tools that enable such information to be shared in an intelligent fashion will continue to power performance momentum.

Empowering In The Right Direction

Companies always need to have the right information at their fingertips to make those quick and bold decisions.

But in these uncertain times, leaders and decision makers will need even more data and technology support to get key insights into their organizational processes, helping them make more informed decisions about their workforce.

This can be achieved through personalized performance insights where companies are able to identify gaps in their workforce.

By realizing this, they are able to provide quick, actionable insights as well as offer the right tools and information to encourage self-driven performance where they don’t have to actively manage performance.

As employees learn to take ownership of their growth and performance, they will improve themselves at a faster rate and in turn, help drive desired outcomes for their organization.

A constantly changing environment also comes with a rapidly shifting set of strategic organizational goals for senior leadership teams to monitor.

While it is common for overarching organizational goals to be discussed behind closed doors only among c-suite executives, directors and managers, it is more crucial than ever for front line employees to be part of the bigger picture as well.

Witnessing one’s performance contributing to the overall success of any business is a form of motivation in itself reinforcing the purpose for teams and employees.

Thus, it is important for everyone in the organization to have their goals be aligned with both short and long term organizational goals. As such, it is clear that COVID-19 has acted as a catalyst for change, accelerating the need for a constantly evolving workforce.

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