Ever since the World Health Organization has declared the coronavirus a pandemic, the uncertainty surrounding the situation has created a new world order. Living in the post-COVID-19 world is no less than living in a post-apocalyptic world.
People are trying their hardest to work around the new norms, consequences, and outcomes of this pandemic. Where many life aspects have been severely affected, and millions have died around the world, indeed businesses have also taken a huge impact.
Recently, things have started to ease down, and many countries worldwide are looking towards a manageable and foreseeable future with COVID-19. Businesses and companies are now opening up as states partially reopen for necessary economic activity.
However, the new norm is far from ordinary, and there is much skepticism surrounding how it all will work out by the end of this year.
Let’s look at some key aspects that have to be looked after by businesses opening back up, given the healthcare and overall wellbeing of its employees.
How Personal Healthcare Crisis Have Affected Businesses during COVID-19?
The following ways are how personal healthcare crises have affected businesses worldwide during COVID-19.
Initially, businesses had to shut down during the peak outbreak
The novel coronavirus’s peak outbreak was earlier this year, mid-March, when it was seen inflicting globally. As the businesses started to shut down during skepticism and panic to avoid a wide-scale outbreak, many countries worldwide suffered a severe economic downturn.
The initial time was crucial to keep the masses indoors and avoiding crowds and public spaces at all costs. All were immediately and abruptly shut down to abide by the government and authoritarian announcements to officially close down the countries from every important business to more prominent corporations.
People wanting to work remotely for healthcare concerns
As the panic settled and people were able to grasp the harsh reality that this pandemic is not going away anytime soon, they started finding ways to function amidst these times. Major corporations settled with allowing their employees to work remotely for increased healthcare concerns associated with them coming in.
Major IT Company Slack was one of the few firsts among Twitter and Square, to announce a permanent work from home option to its employees. Many other companies followed suit as people found new ways to conduct business operations with the help of technology while sitting at their homes.
Increased leverage for absences when a worker calls-in sick
Many companies had to deal with workers calling-in sick more often than normal. Not only were there people who got infected with coronavirus, but the general mass panic had also led to complications with the usual viral infections going around, especially during the springtime. Companies had to increase the leverage of absences and allow people much needed time off from work.
Apart from the physical health crises, there has been a subsequent mental health crisis as well. It has been difficult for people to work from home, pay rent, bills, and support their family, all of which have taken a toll on their capacity to function beneficially.
Businesses responsible for covering healthcare insurances
The post-COVID situation has also made companies and corporations around the world responsible for covering for its employees’ healthcare. Organizations that haven’t done so have faced severe backlash as they haven’t catered to the basic need of the time for its employees.
However, on the other hand, corporations like GoDaddy, HND assignment help, and Twitter have fully funded healthcare insurances for their employees. As per the research conducted by McKinsey, many companies across the US are doing better by covering healthcare insurance and will be able to provide ongoing support during these unprecedented times by appointing new and advanced operational strategies.
Restricted number of employees allowed in one setting
Many essential businesses, when reopened, had to call in some of its employees. However, as the crowd ban and restrictions were still in place to not exceed the number of people gathering at a place, company authorities restricted the number of employees allowed at the office premises.
Employees were called in every alternate day in limited batches to perform the necessary work while staying away from the dangers of spreading the infection.
Providing health protection and abiding by SOPs
Companies were mandated to provide healthcare protection gear like masks, sanitizers, bodysuits, and gloves in order to comply with the standard operating procedures put in place. The government has allowed operations only if these rules are put in place and strictly followed by the personnel.
Many companies have also opted to check fever and conduct the coronavirus test every two weeks for its employees to stay safe to avoid spreading the infection.
More expenses for maintaining premises hygiene
As the work premises open up for corporations around the countries, there has been an increase in the miscellaneous and administrative expenses to maintain the workspaces’ sanitization and overall hygiene. It has also been difficult to hire the proper personnel and deploy the appropriate gear fit for after-work cleaning and disinfection of the office space.
Companies have also hired external cleaning and disinfecting teams to come in and help maintain the overall cleanliness of the premises as it is dangerous to work without the proper gear in place.
In Conclusion
All in all, there have many challenges that businesses across the world had to deal with, given how the pandemic has progressed.
Now, as the lockdowns are being lifted and people are slowly but surely getting back in the gist of working on-premises, there is an increased need to provide the right healthcare resources and take care of their wellbeing at the expense of the companies that are opening up.
