How CFOs Are Addressing Challenges Brought On By Coronavirus
Over the past few months, the coronavirus pandemic took the world by storm. In fact, each and every day, the impact seemed to grow larger and larger. While we’re not in the clear yet, lockdowns are being lifted, but it’s still important to maintain social distancing in an effort to minimize the risk of a large second wave. Naturally, we’ve seen the virus have consequences on all aspects of life – from our personal lives to our professional lives. So what’s next for businesses?
Non-essential businesses, daycares, and schools around the world are slowly starting to open up their doors, but that doesn’t mean they’ll go back to normal right away. Instead, many organizations will continue to embrace remote work. Why? Because it’s more cost-efficient while ensuring the health and well-being of their team members.
Gartner surveyed 317 CFOs to find out their plans for operating in a post-coronavirus world:
● 74% of CFOs plan to switch previously on-premises employees to remote work post-coronavirus.
● 81% of CFOs plan to exceed their contractual obligations to hourly workers via remote work to offer flexible schedules.
● 13% of CFOs have already cut real estate expenses with another 9% planning to do the same.
Remote Work Is Here To Stay
There’s no doubt about it, remote work is here to stay. Let’s take a look at how CFOs can embrace remote work to ensure staff members stay safe, productive, and efficient while working from home:
Don’t forget about boundaries
Talk to your remote workforce about the importance of boundaries so they don’t lose their work/life balance. They should stick to a schedule and avoid working outside of that unless necessary. This will prevent any sort of burnout and keep them productive.
Create a remote work policy
Your remote work policy should outline your expectations in terms of hours and/or schedules, sick days, acceptable cloud and/or online services, minimum technology specifications, and more.
Use the right cloud-based tools
The cloud is ideal for remote work as it enables anytime, anywhere access to data, applications, and systems. Here are a few options:
- Microsoft 365 for access to calendar, email, contacts, video conferencing, word processing, and more.
- VoIP business phones to allow employees to make and receive calls over the internet.
- Cloud versions of ERP systems, accounting programs, CRM systems, and other important applications.
Implement cybersecurity measures on devices
It’s best to ensure employees are corporate-owned devices instead of personal PCs. Those corporate-owned devices should be equipped with enterprise-grade security measures, including the following:
- Anti-virus software
- Spam filtering
- A virtual private network
Start Preparing For Future Disruptions
Many organizations have realized the importance of business continuity planning, and in particular, planning for a widespread, long-term disruption as opposed to the typical storm or outage we expect. We recommend ensuring your business continuity plan covers the following:
- Disruptions to essential services, such as telecommunications, supply chains, logistics, etc.
- Important emergency contacts, as well as any banks that you can turn toward for funding if needed.
- Cancellations and/or disruptions to the movement of people and goods across the border.
- Remote work necessities, including cloud-based systems, policies, and security measures.
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Check out the following blogs to learn more:
Managing Remote Workers During The Coronavirus Pandemic
Hackers Using COVID-19 Cause Influx of Malicious Attacks
State of Emergency Throughout Michigan: Overcoming Challenges with Remote Work
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