It’s high time to get into the work mode to experiment and get ready for what’s coming, or already upon us. The small businesses would have to look for ways to get on and find ways to get around the impact of Coronavirus Lockdown.
The COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdown have impacted several sectors but the most important is the healthcare sector – and the challenges of meeting the cost and the need for extent of coverage.
Research conducted by most international fund-raising organizations shows that the biggest challenge identified by small business owners is the healthcare cost. While things may never be “normal” again, the struggle for little employers to supply affordable healthcare will remain.
Most business houses claim that the smaller the business, the larger is the challenge and, therefore, healthcare becomes costlier in a small business house.
Under all circumstances, Business Mckinsey Reports says that a six-pronged healthcare guide has to be retained even if the world decides to get back to work after the six-month-long enforced social distancing that has brought businesses and several human activities to a groveling halt across the globe.
Those six points to be considered are:
- Reform
- Health for all
- The era of exponential improvement unleashed
- The big squeeze
- Fragmented, integrated, consolidated care
- Next-generation managed care acceleration
But what actions could you take in reality?
While ethical business management demands that operations have to be planned on the lines mentioned in totality, in reality, this is not likely to work out.
On the contrary, it means that the small business house claim would shift that cost burden to their employees — by increasing deductions and charging higher premiums.
One-third of the tiny business owners that have been surveyed said they’ve considered discontinuing healthcare coverage for their employees altogether.
That was before the pandemic. In recent months, the estimates predict that several Americans have lost their insurance. Small businesses need help providing adequate and affordable healthcare to their workers, now more than ever.
Medic-aid and market-place coverage options are already available to support some small businesses and their workers.
They might be further bolstered to make sure that as many of the employees as possible have comprehensive healthcare coverage during this crisis and beyond.
There is the related issue of support for caregivers and paid leave. Like every sector, every enterprise, small business owners, and employees are also struggling to balance their work and family lives in these times.
The Small Business Report states that nearly half of the small business owners feel burned out trying to take care of business and household responsibilities at the same time.
Meanwhile, even before the pandemic, an average of one in five employees was providing healthcare for some ailing elder, or a disabled loved one. Their numbers have likely increased.
While most small business owners agree that supporting caregivers within the workplace is the fair and right thing to do, only 18 percent have a properly worked out policy to deal with exigencies of family caregiving obligations.
As these businesses reopen, both owners and workers are concerned about the way to go about managing work and home and health, to continue to take care of their families — especially with children and elders still at home — and minimize the likelihood of transmitting COVID-19 infection picked up while commuting or at their workplace to vulnerable members of their household.
While the Families First Coronavirus Response Act expanded paid leave options, its benefits and advantages are limited. According to some estimates, almost half the private sector workforce could be excluded due to exemptions for both large and really small workforce in regular employment.
These circumstances and the old or conventional approach don’t help the entrepreneur, the employee, or the clientele: in short, it doesn’t help the business. New ways have to be found to get the work done and to meet the demand as well as the needs of the workforce. Any activity, more so a business, that is conducted has the society and humans at the center. That is a basic fact, a given. And that has to be taken care of, for achieving anything.
A small business has some advantages over bigger enterprises. It has the advantage of flexibility, of smaller liability in terms of real-estate, that is, rented business or office space. What the workers can do from home, while taking care of their families, should be done from their homes. It reduces costs for the organization and tension or trouble for the staff.
The policy, rather the temptation, to have the staff report to the office for work means not only the extra establishment cost but also involves the risk of the entire office coming down with COVID-19 infection transmitted inadvertently by any single employee.
The Suggestion Is:
It’s more advisable to keep the employees away from the attendant risk and get the work done, rather than have them around, worrying about their families and getting the entire office tense and worried.
Small businesses have the advantage of having smaller liabilities and greater flexibility and maneuverability in this regard.
They do not own huge establishments that need maintenance and have fewer problems winding up or scaling down space they need for operating.
One finds several small shops that have shifted their operations elsewhere, or have simply gone online – the most visible being those in the food business.
The small businesses have a smaller bunch of workers, who are more close-knit and have a greater level of communication and synergy between them.
The feeling of support, the personal touch, the emotional back-up it provides are no less important than the material, financial security of the job, especially in these times of social distancing.
Conclusion:
In short, if the smaller businesses have their fundamentals sorted out, they can turn the COVID-19 problem into an opportunity rather than the crisis it is seen as.
The three essential traits for companies’ functionality -the competitive advantage of staff employed, their capacity of deliverance and the ethical conviction are to be shelved for the time being. The question that needs to be assessed is how did the company be where it is up to now, with the same teamwork.
Most CEOs have a critical task too: for several, it’s budgeting season. The new research survey finds that the financial-planning process for 2021 presents an opportunity to indicate hard-earned lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic into an everlasting exercise in linking strategy to value.
It is a time when they can cut costs without losing out on performance, productivity, or clientele. They just have to know how to handle it and turn around the situation.
The COVID-19 research from able bodies in financial studies has declared that the year ahead has hard-earned lessons.
Author Bio –
Henry Clay is an academic expert in the fields of business. His diligence in academic assistance has been applauded by students from around the globe; who swear by his eclectic writing style and subject matter expertise in Business Studies. He is associated with My Assignment Services as an academic writer and loves to do online assignment help for students who need assistance.