Today, many businesses are striving to defy the dilemma of staying connected with the workforce due to the posed consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic. For example, the pandemic's imposed quarantine has closed doors to millions of employees and companies worldwide, which by then has undoubtedly changed the working habits and communication modes, leaving behind heavy losses. The UN summarized the destructive impact of COVID- 19 by expecting the global economy to lose approximately $8.5 trillion in output in the next two years, ruining nearly all four years’ growth.

The consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have made many organizations struggle to manage and cope with the current situation. Yet, the pandemic can drive changes and new opportunities. Enterprises have now realized the necessity to have avenues for instant collaboration and communication to share guidance, updates, resources, and information even under pandemic circumstances to ease the return to normal as soon as possible.

In this article, we look at some strategies that businesses have adopted to transform their communication means to more digitized ones and, in the process, proved a remarkable business resilience with a high level of collaboration between stakeholders.

When the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the COVID-19  outbreak for the first time in March 2020, governments and health officials worldwide had to implement different measures to control the pandemic’s spread, including social distancing and quarantine that have affected many businesses and industries.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen that many businesses have adapted to digital transformations that positioned companies to wider opportunities that traditional processes cannot do, especially nowadays. Also, moving most of the business online has become a part of their new normal.

In critical situations like the pandemic, technology alone can provide the solution to engage personnel with external stakeholders, facilitate collaboration between them regardless of physical distancing, and offer optimal solutions to connect employees back to their workplaces to ease business return as usual.

For example, in the crisis management field, investing in a critical event management platform such as what RAYVN provides, users can secure ongoing stakeholders’ support and track business continuity through the existing real-time communications capabilities between all relevant stakeholders.

As the world has started to reopen slowly, enterprises need to consider new routines and procedures to formulate back-to-office plans. Office workplaces will not be the same as they were before the COVID-19 outbreak and possibly never will be again. Some companies are even considering whether remote work is how they’ll primarily operate from now on. The Gartner Survey Reveals that 74% of organizations plan to adopt the “working from home” strategy for some employees. The pandemic’s office situation has presented an opportunity to guide many to utilize hybrid models of working. 

For example, some companies have decided to adopt a broader strategy that utilizes a distributed workforce model due to its significant role in transforming their future plans. This strategy has specially gathered momentum due to the existing communication tool that engages employees with stakeholders regardless of where they are, which has become a more common way of getting work done today. One example is the users of the RAYVN platform, where many use RAYVN in their day-to-day operations. Many believe that it’s a practical tool that brings people together, even if their teams work from home or offices—the availability of real-time communication and instant alert systems, especially during the COVID-19 circumstances. Moreover, users take advantage of RAYVN to collaborate and engage external stakeholders in decision-making. Owing to the shortcomings in emergency management tools and traditional response techniques that have been used during the pre-COVID stage, it lacks the technological essence to gather, process, and report on real-time information and share it with related stakeholders.

In the face of an escalating event like the COVID crisis, no doubt that the solution is investing in digital tools that support the distributed workforce’s engagement that will guarantee business continuity besides maintaining employees’ and other stakeholders’ safety. 

Over the years, the RAYVN team has seen shining examples from our valuable customers utilizing risk intelligence in critical event management and critical communications to enhance safety measurements. A story to tell is by one of RAYVN customers in Norway who uses the RAYVN notification system as a significant part of their contingency plan to contain the spread of infection and to ensure a safe reopening of their facility. Such an example might be sufficient to raise many managers and business owners’ broken hopes due to the COVID-19 crisis.