How a Remote Workforce Can Curb Business Risk During a Crisis

As the news reports about the Corona virus are spreading, the concern for how it will impact business grows. Many enterprises around the world are perplexed over how the Corona virus (COVID-19) outbreak will evolve. Meanwhile, remote businesses and their workers maintain confidence in their ability to carry on as normal. The Customer Support Services (CSS) Team at Solugenix is finding that its remote support services offers unique advantages for businesses to minimize their exposure during the COVID-19 crisis. 

Mitigating Business Risk During a Threat

Minimizing the impact to business is a top priority for many executives. From electronics manufacturing to food service, companies are already seeing an impact to their business. One of the latest businesses to be impacted by COVID-19 concerns is cosmetics giant L'Oreal whose CEO has said that the virus "will certainly have an impact in the weeks to come" as China is one of its biggest markets¹. Companies who do not take swift action to mitigate business exposure will be at the mercy of the evolving climate. Some businesses will struggle while others thrive.

Although it may be harder for businesses in industries like manufacturing to do a reversal, there are still some ways that companies can leverage the changing landscape and implement creative solutions to ensure readiness for tomorrow's threats. One way is through the development of a remote workforce.

Remote Work Offers Unique Safeguards

Remote work offers built-in business continuity during a viral outbreak. Technology has been a great enabler for work at home jobs for over a decade now but today, the opportunity for enterprises is more accessible than ever. Remote work is the way for companies to protect their employees and keep the lights on during a crisis, like the COVID-19 outbreak.

The CDC has recommended “social distancing” as an effective approach to counter the current COVID-19 outbreak. Remote work improves social distancing naturally.

Remote employees can feel safer knowing their risk for infection is substantially reduced while working in their home offices. For those with immune-compromised health conditions, reducing their risk of infection in the workplace is consequential, possibly even life-saving. Today, even healthcare practitioners are looking at utilizing remote technologies to protect themselves and speed up diagnostics while treating patients². 

Remote Workforce For Business Continuity

Maintaining continuity of business during a crisis is critical. With a remote workforce, the disruption to business can be considerably reduced during a public health crisis. As we've already seen in some countries like China, when there is a perceived health threat, workers favor staying home and missing work in lieu of exposing themselves to the threat in the office or elsewhere. This means there will likely be a significant business disruption for those enterprises that have not already implemented a work from home infrastructure.

With a reliable work from home infrastructure, whether in the office or remote, workers can easily communicate with one another regardless of location and can continue to work. With the right set of collaboration tools that digitally oriented businesses have implemented, the lines of communication can stay open. Additionally, the use of cloud-based enterprise platforms and applications can ensure that businesses keep the lights on during a public health crisis.

The proper infrastructure enables client services to continue as-is during a time that other businesses and competitors are shut down. Not only can the business keep employees safe and set itself apart from competitors but they can also minimize the impact to their bottom line.

Moving Forward in a Fluid Climate

As additional knowledge of COVID-19 becomes more available, companies will need to take action and prepare themselves as the situation evolves. Rapid development and deployment of business continuity plans are critical as COVID-19's impact to business increases. Remote workforce enablement is a solution that brings better business continuity but requires specific expertise to deploy. Solugenix Support Center Services provides this expertise and offers clients a remote workforce option from small-town and rural US. 

Sources

1. Singh, Sarwant. “Impact Of The Coronavirus On Business.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 4 Mar. 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/sarwantsingh/2020/03/02/impact-of-the-coronavirus-on-business/#3eb179914414.
2. Reuter, Elise. “Hospitals Turn to Technology to Combat Coronavirus.” MedCity News, 5 Mar. 2020, medcitynews.com/2020/03/hospitals-turn-to-technology-to-combat-coronavirus/.

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