Covid-19 Crisis : What action plan should SMEs adopt?
In the wake of the confinement period observed by the Kingdom, companies are somehow resuming their business activities. After the health crisis, economic crisis is inevitable and Moroccan small and medium-sized companies must do all they can to face up to this unprecedented situation. Here is an overview of the measures that ought to be taken.
Like the rest of the world, Morocco is undergoing an unprecedented crisis engendered by the Covid-19 pandemics. In confinement ever since the proclamation of the state of emergency on March 20, 2020, the majority of companies have been coping with a very difficult situation and even de-confinement, which is now underway, does not, alas, mean a return to normalcy. In fact, while some sectors are still in the grips of uncertainty, others are only resuming their business slowly. In the absence of a vaccine, the present period requires the adoption of numerous safety measures and the adaptation of the economic model at work in every company.
Supporting Staff
First and foremost, it is important to support staff who have just lived a very trying period and who are now going to be highly solicited in the months to come. Whether they have continued working—within the company or remotely—or they have been furloughed, all of them now need to be listened to and followed through. To this end, managerial communication and internal communication, alike, must be bolstered to keep strong links with the staff and explain to them the measures that are going to be taken. In certain cases, it may be useful to call upon an external psychological support cell in order to allow staff to confide into counsellors in full anonymity. Taking care of stress and anxiety is indispensable if we hope to move forward.
Reinforcing Security
To reassure staff and allow a resumption of work with a maximum sense of security a clutch of essential measures must be taken. Ideally, a Covid-19 action plan, steered by an internal team, should be set up to organize everything and to follow-up on the health of the staff members. Accordingly, the most fragile should be identified and particularly protected, notably by allowing them to telecommute. As for those who remain within the company, they must follow very strict rules. According to CGEM, companies are recommended to take their staff members’ temperatures at the main access points of the facilities—in consultation with an occupational medical doctor—and to require them to wear masks. Within the buildings themselves, a distance of at least one meter between persons must be observed in offices, in meeting rooms, as well as in common areas. Similarly, health protection equipment, such as masks and hydro-alcoholic gel, must be made available to everyone so that they may readily access and use them. Communication is likewise important. For this, posters should be put in all strategic spots. Awareness raising and accountability fostering among staff are also essential in this situation. Finally, the premises must be disinfected on a regular basis, depending on the business, with particular attention given to health areas.
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Signage Posters Tarp Honeycomb panels |
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Plexi-glass Protection For counters For vehicles For personalized protection |
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Personal Protection Masks Visors |
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Indoor Delimitation Floor markings Accessories |
Planning One’s Exit from the Crisis
Beyond these measures, a company must also provide for its crisis-exit plan. In essence, this is a short-term strategy –spanning for a few months only—which allows the company to adapt its activities to the situation in order to survive: distribution, sales, cash-flow, work with partners, etc. This approach follows the Business Continuity Plan (BCP) by focusing on such fundamentals that would allow the company to overcome the crisis. To do so, company leaders might do well to show agility in order to be able to adjust the measures, if the need should arise, and depending on the evolution of the situation. Similarly, the mobilization of staff members is crucial and good communication is necessary to share the plan and its goals with everyone.
Reinventing the Organization of Work
On a daily bases distancing rules mandate that work be done differently. Accordingly, during the confinement several companies discovered the benefits of teleworking. A study conducted by Rekrute site revealed that 56% of executives actually worked from their homes and half of the companies had put 80% of their salaried staff on teleworking. When it is well supervised, this practice helps prevent the risk of contagion and even achieves gains in productivity. Indeed, studies show that staff members work more efficiently and save a great deal of time with the suppression of trips to and from work. Moreover, it seems that meetings are better managed, notably thanks to new digital platforms such as Teams and Google Meet.
Accelerating Digitization
More generally, it is the whole company which benefits from digitization during this period. The companies that have gone far in their digital transformation have often handled the crisis better. More than ever before, this approach has emerged as a priority for many Morocco small and medium-sized companies. Depending on the sector, it is urgent now to explore ways and means of integrating digital technology in all company dimensions: human resources, marketing, communication, etc. In fact, dematerialization and the possibility of accessing information remotely make it possible to consider teleworking and also having more agility with customers.
Preparing for the Next Crisis
Finally, it is also important to derive lessons from the crisis. Needless to say, crises often act as moments of revelation, highlighting lacunae and showing progress pathways. On the one hand, there are things that work well, like teleworking, which really deserves to be part of our customs even when the crisis is over. On the other hand, there are points that probably warrant improvement, notably in anticipation of the next crisis—should there be another confinement or any other problematic issue that may well arise. It is, for example, useful to evaluate the Business Continuity Plan or simply to elaborate one, taking into account all the risks that a company may be confronted to. It is also the occasion to bolster the tools of internal communication, which at times proved to be inadequate when it came to reaching out for staff members during the confinement period. It is thanks to such improvements that small and medium-sized companies will be better prepared in the future.
CGEM Guides
In the framework of the exit-from-the-crisis process, the General Confederation of Companies in Morocco (CGEM), has developed several practical guides and a training kit for the benefit of companies that are eligible for the resumption of their business. They aim at following companies through in taking preventive and sanitary measures to ensure maximum safety for their staff members and their customers.
Three are particularly adapted to companies:
- A Practical Guide to Preventive and Sanitary Measure against COVID-19, designed for small and medium sized companies;
- A Practical Guide to Internal Sanitary Audit against COVID-19;
- A Training Kit on “Sanitary Measures against COVID-19,” for the benefit of the entire personnel body
The above guides are to be found on a CGEM site especially devoted to the crisis:
Expert advice:
No company leader would have anticipated the COVID-19 scenario in the formulation of their development strategy, still less have an idea about its scope and the swiftness with which the pandemics spread across the world and within our country. Against all expectations, this new phenomenon has shown humanity to what extent our existence even in this 21st century was so fragile and brittle.
While this health crisis denotes brutality, as to its form, as seen notably in the interruption of several activities and the loss of countless jobs in the most prone sectors (tourism, construction, transport, and certain industries, etc.), it nonetheless constitute a unique opportunity for leaders to pause and ask questions about the meaning of their action and to better appreciate their contribution to making the world better in quite a different economic and geopolitical context.
Indeed, Moroccan leading executives are today called upon to bring specific anwers to different questions related to several aspects of a company:
- Are the leader’s own deep convictions aligned with their company’s value proposition, and with its business model?
- Should certain sectors (such as health, agribusiness, hygiene, security, safety, etc.), which have hitherto been relegated to secondary roles, be reconsidered in the company’s business model?
- How could one make the most of the relocation movement which would be made necessary by the move to bring entire strands of European chain values to consumption centres in order to compensate for their dependency on Asia?
- How can we increase the resilience of the company in times of crises, as well as its agility and capacity to innovate within short cycles?
- How could a company contribute to a reduction of social disparities? What is its impact on the environment? What is its carbon footprint? And how would it ensure the security and well being of its employees?
- Finally, what provisions have been made to speed up digitization in a rather uncertain health context marked by the resurgence of teleworking, and the necessary remote continuity of activity?
All of these questions impel business leaders to set their companies in motion and to allow them to make a rebound after this world health crisis.
To follow through this virtuous dynamics, several national institutions, with the support of the banking sector, have set up innovative technical assistance and funding mechanisms (such as CCG and Maroc PME) which are open to companies looking to turn the current crisis into an opportunity.
By adopting a winning mindset, our country is bound to emerge from the crisis greater still.