The second wave a Terminator or hacker to our economy and lifestyle?

3 tips to use and support your business during the second wave

the second wave jeopardizes survivability of our global economy and may end our world the way we know it .

Now that the summer is over and its tentative recovery has gathered momentum for a shorter time than expected , we are entering a new era full of fears of what the winter holds for us, we can note that the drop in eurozone services activity last month was the latest sign of the threat to the region’s economy; But some fear even limited restrictions risk destroying the fragile consumer confidence that had begun to take root during a fleeting few weeks this summer.

Europe’s leisure and hospitality sectors which is include millions of small businesses — are already feeling the impact even of early closures of bars and restaurants for the second time this year and in less than 6 months, which makes 4 months roughly of “open to business “ .

What we need to take from the first wave and try to apply again to support our busines and ecosystem would be based on Leadership approach and people management:

1.      Respond, don’t react

As the first wave hit hard and unannounced , many leaders and business owners were unprepared facing challenges never seen before , but with today experience and knowledge , many have learnt from their mistakes and are working to create more efficient approach because while the pandemic was unprecedented in its impact, some of its effects on the world of business were all too predictable.

Leaders reacted to the pandemic on short notice but with today there are no excuses and they need a more structured approach – identifying and addressing likely challenges of scale, velocity, duration, workforce, coordination and infrastructure which are the main challenges faced across business as we progress to the next stage of the crisis

Leaders and managers need to create and design a virtual command centre with a set of processes, applications and technologies that can offer unprecedented insight into operations and build substantial amounts of flexibility and resilience into operations

2.      Keep your people healthy & SANE

Ensuring the wellbeing of employees is one of the challenges faced by many business during COVID-19, it was a monumental task, requiring a coordinated understanding of the needs of all employees and their families, HR were required to have a clear interpretation of evolving government guidance and rethinking how people could work remotely with all the support needed .

One of the most visible changes to business-as-usual has been the global implementation of remote and home-working practices which brought its own organizational and emotional strains, some members have grown weary of online interactions and miss the unexpected conversations and spontaneous coffee meetings which is only possible in an office setting.

It was difficult to avoid burnout for many people since the distinction between work and home life has been significantly blurred; And for those who have hired new employees or have recently become head of a new team, building relationships has been much more difficult through a computer screen than it would have been face-to-face. 

3.      Boost cybersecurity

Cybersecurity has been a major technology concern during COVID-19; particularly as the increased numbers of people working remotely gives potential cybercriminals more points of attack and business needed everything from fresh assessments of digital footprint, to implementing new security analytics processes, and even new training for employees

Within organizations, cybersecurity leaders need to take a stronger and more strategic leadership role. They need to move beyond being compliance monitors and enforcers to better integrate with the business, manage information risks more strategically and work toward a culture of shared cyber-risk ownership across the enterprise

In the COVID-19 context, cybersecurity leaders must strike a critical balance between security and privacy, time to operations and market, cost and convenience.