Preparing your business for recovery – October 2021
IT Services
How to maintain the performance of your teams after the crisis?
- Relaunch prospects
- Find out about the new measures and organize yourself accordingly
- Continue adapting to work in hybrid mode
- Gain visibility into team planning
With this rebound in the economy ( a forecast of 6% for 2021 ), a positive end to the year is expected! With the employment level returning to its pre-crisis level, your new teams are waiting for you. Don't miss any opportunities and face new challenges by equipping yourself with an ERP for better management of your activity.
The September 2021 school year, and especially the second post-COVID-19 school year, was not like the others. Even though we have already experienced a complicated return to school in 2020, it had its own challenges.
This fall, the IT Services , consulting and professional services companies are exposed to an economic context that is still different from last year. Which remains complicated to anticipate despite the similarities linked to the current health context.
The practical conditions of this return to work represent a lesser challenge, because company employees are now used to working at home. They saw the activity interrupted the previous year and experienced face-to-face resumption at least 50%.
Can we hope that 2021-2022 will be a return to “normal”?
Logically, remote working risks being continued for health reasons. Team meetings in the office and with clients on site will be possible, but perhaps limited. Hoping that gradually, the limits will be lifted entirely.
Once again, this year will require creativity, flexibility, the ability to step back and question oneself in the face of legal, logistical, health and economic concerns. The transformation of working methods continues, we will have to continue to innovate and adapt. It's the new routine and some are seeing the benefits despite the decline in activity in 2020!
Indeed, “ More than 7 out of 10 companies experienced a decline in their activity in 2020. For French digital, the impact on turnover due to Covid-19 is estimated at around 2.7 billion euros. euros.”
However, “53% of IT Services and ICTs believe that the crisis has had an accelerating or triggering effect on their policy of partnerships with other digital companies.”
And “61% of IT Services and ICT companies believe that the Covid-19 crisis has had an accelerating effect on their digital transformation.”
With the growth rate estimated at +1.0% for 2021, we know that this figure can only increase and surpass predictions. And this is already happening in digital service companies…
Relations between employees and the tools used on a daily basis will continue to evolve positively if the culture of digital transformation has been established within your company over the past year.
However, the same critical questions remain to be asked from last year:
Indeed, in addition to monitoring and respecting health safety instructions, other elements must be taken into account to return to work in a secure and strategic manner.
1. Relaunch prospects
Relaunching prospects and revitalizing customer prospects are obvious. Your business growth must continue to climb. It’s about making yourself an essential part of their return to school and never leaving their perimeter:
You have to stay in the prospect's head so that they can't forget you.
Different techniques exist and are implemented in all areas of the industry. The distribution of a newsletter to your target audience, attaching elements demonstrating your expertise, your experiences and the real added value of your service. Regular activity on social networks and other media. Regular creation of quality and relevant content, etc. These are so many examples of techniques used and usable.
The post-COVID-19 situation to which we are now more or less accustomed still imposes some rules. Consulting and professional services companies will therefore not be able to hold as many client meetings as they wish. Or will be able to do it mainly remotely until the situation improves. The same goes for face-to-face networking events.
Travel and meetings are authorized in France, and the rules have been very relaxed since vaccination is underway. This does not mean that everything is possible again, and we cannot predict the next government restrictions – assuming there will be any.
2. Get informed, communicate and get organized
Faced with this still unpredictable and risky context, companies will continue to demonstrate flexibility.
Inform or remind you of safety instructions and procedures.
This is a priority in order to comply with the law. But also to guarantee the safety of employees, potential visitors and customers. Complying with these measures allows structures to be protected against real risks.
It is important to stay informed about the situation and the evolution of the crisis. Communication with employees is essential to organize teams accordingly and remain operational in any circumstances.
There will still be work at home and perhaps travel possible, but limited. Whether at the client's site or in the office between teams, we will have to continue to demonstrate flexibility for some time to come. Many employees will make the decision or be instructed to still stay home. Which will be less difficult than in 2020, but which still represents its limits.
Training on the use of digital tools must not stop.
Your business will continue to grow if employees maintain their performance with these tools that allow them to work from anywhere.
See this article on how to support your teams towards digital transformation .
The restart period is ideal for setting up this training for employees. This is an opportunity to start a new year by innovating and improving internal collaboration using tools such as an ERP for consulting companies.
Links to official guidelines from the European Union and the United Kingdom:
Infographics, posters and leaflets about COVID-19
COVID-19: guidance for the workplace
3. Continue adapting to hybrid mode
For those who want it: offer to work partly remotely. For those who are ready to come back face-to-face every day, allow them to work in the best conditions.
For example, large companies like Microsoft, Uber and Google have opted for hybrid work since March 2021. “The VTC company limits the reception capacity of its offices to 20% and numerous measures are taken to limit the risk of contagion. (…) This is done on a voluntary basis, and its policy regarding teleworking applies until mid-September 2021.” What about this fall for these companies? Everyone seems to adapt over time.
Consequently, companies have transformed alongside this flexibility since the beginning of 2020. They have had to learn to manage a new distribution of tasks and absence management in a more understanding way and adapted to the lack of face-to-face interactions. These changes and new trends, now well established, will continue this year.
THE IT Services , consulting and professional services companies will themselves benefit from actively listening to their clients and networks on the various concerns regarding the management of organizations. As well as possible strategies for returning to work 100%. It is important to listen to all the players involved. This is the way to build the best possible working environment together. This by connecting leadership and employees in this context which has become our daily life.
Some organizations are encouraging total teleworking, while others are doing everything to prepare for a normal recovery. And you ? Is hybrid mode right for you?
4. Gain visibility into team planning , load monitoring, and resource management
A post-COVID-19 return to school is also an opportunity for companies to take advantage of these troubled times to convert them into an optimization phase with the aim of maximizing their performance.
Back to school is the time to equip yourself with an ERP!
Many questions have been asked since the start of the 2020 school year:
Consulting and professional services companies have learned that it is necessary to equip themselves with tools that are sufficiently flexible and efficient to facilitate visibility into the work of teams. An ERP for a consulting company , for example, can simplify remote processes. Particularly when teams are located on different sites.
In current conditions, the intelligent distribution of the workload according to individual and technical capacities and the careful monitoring of production capacities in relation to the expected load – is an essential element to better control costs in this uncertain period.
Several tools make it possible to clearly visualize which are the priority and essential tasks.
Make your resource planning and increase your performance
Working remotely has increased the need for companies to equip themselves with centralized exchange and communication platforms. These allow you to visualize the progress of various projects. But also the well-being of the teams by optimally allocating the workload. Management must have better visibility on the workload of its teams: who is available, at what time, with what skill(s), etc.
THE resource planning has become more flexible like employees themselves: the LSE Business Review notes an increase in the desire to collaborate, to be flexible and quick to adapt.
Collaborate better
With the inevitable dispersion of the workforce at the start of the school year, a tailor-made overview, based on explicit and relevant data, is fundamental to monitoring the performance and commitment of teams in this troubled context.
A thorough understanding of the various activities allows appropriate positioning and organization of timetable tasks over the long and short term. On the other hand, spotting holes in schedules allows them to be optimized.
Finally, employees must be able to be accountable on a daily basis. Both their performance and each of their difficulties; and this in detail and to attentive ears.
Consulting and professional services companies are particularly concerned by these issues. Indeed, their work and exchange spaces can extend from the office to the employee's home. But also, and above all, with the customer.
Choosing to equip yourself with an ERP means choosing to collaborate better with your team and colleagues in general!
Flexibility put to the test by COVID-19
This delicate and frequent geographic flexibility leads to distancing and increases communication difficulties. Report on your performance, clearly explain your schedule, work in a team, etc. – are becoming significantly more complex in these areas and require an urgent response.
We have this answer!
Consulting and professional services companies need to invest in tools that enable and facilitate work from home and virtual collaboration among their employees.
These reflexes still require great flexibility on the part of companies and individuals. It is a question of continuing the momentum of reorganizing the management of resources and the resource planning in order to attack September 2021 even more prepared than last year.
The recovery this fall 2021 promises to be full of challenges and new challenges for consulting and professional services companies. Beyond a traditional return to work since the start of the school year, this period is also an opportunity to optimize the performance of each structure, taking a step back from the experience of the last two years.
Flexibility, visibility, connectivity and innovation are key words to prioritize this fall.
