For most businesses, salaries and wages are one of the largest costs and are often the most difficult to control especially in this COVID-19 pandemic which has disrupted a lot of businesses activities.
Companies that are not making enough profit are either laying off staff or doing pay cuts due to the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19. And changing salaries or wages or letting-go of staffers is touchy for those who are affected. For the firm, it might mean losing good hands and nobody wants that.
Here are some tips to follow to ensure your company is positioned to survive, thrive in any economic environment and not add to the unemployment net in the country,
Review and adjust your level of compensation(salaries/wages)
Review and adjust the compensation level of your employees in line with the current trends. Salaries and wages tend to be vulnerable to markets and financial conditions change.
But before you make such adjustments have a frank talk with the employees affected so that they know what to expect and why their expected raises will no longer happen.
Read also: COVID-19: Udom commissions 300-bed isolation centre
Have and practice Business optimization tools
This is the practice of increasing organizational efficiency by improving processes. You need to have the discipline of business process management (BPM). When you optimized your business processes, it will lead you to optimized your business goals.
Some examples of optimization include: Eliminating redundancies, streamlining workflows, improving communication and forecasting change.
Embrace technology
With the health and social distance measures to combat COVID-19, using technology is much needed at this time. And when used efficiently, can help you cut labour costs to a certain extent.
Computers can automate several tasks and greatly reduce production time and costs. It also has the ability to enhance and improve project management so that more gets done with less labour. Computer technology can handle more duties, is user-friendly, and relatively inexpensive.
Want new hands? Hire interns or temporary help pro tem
Every business witnesses’ peak periods of production at one point or another. When you feel that your business is going to need more people, you can look at hiring interns or temporary agencies instead of full-time employees to reduce labour costs.
Train your employees to do new things
You can motivate your employees to learn new things and facilitate the process for them if your business is exploring new directions amid the pandemic. Firms like Dior and Givenchy, which are luxury perfume makers produced hand sanitizer for French health authorities during the pandemic. You might not be switching lines for charity purpose but as a business strategy, even then, helping your staff get the extra knowledge to tweak “ perfumes to sanitizers” can save you cost of replacing your team.
Engage your employees
This is because engaged employees are more productive. They go the extra mile, they work harder and they deliver more for you and your customers.
