Has anything positive emerged from the Covid lockdowns?
Despite the understandable gloom and doom of Covid lockdowns, business owners are firmly of the view that there have been many benefits that have arisen. In quite a lot of cases their ‘hand was forced’ to make/implement changes in their business that they already had in mind anyway – but simply hadn’t got around to doing. But what is most telling is how few of the changes they have introduced will be reversed when they emerge from the lockdown-fog.
Throughout our conversations with SMEs, key benefits of lockdowns are seen as follows …
Owners of smaller businesses highlighted that Covid made them re-evaluate their business and where it fits into their life (and not the other way around). The lockdowns gave them the time to ponder and make changes where desired. Are they doing what they were put on this earth to do?!
Of course, many SMEs embraced – or increased emphasis on – eCommerce through the Covid period. Almost all of them think this has been a positive for their business. Many SMEs that weren’t engaged with eComm had to move that way quickly – or they struggled to sell! Some had been flirting with doing so but hadn’t got around to it. They had no choice during lockdown.
Working from home. This is the most contentious of the benefits of lockdown as business owners often see it as a two-edged sword. Whilst it has increased flexibility for employees, some also WANT TO GET THE BAND BACK TOGETHER! Nevertheless, going forward they see a hybrid model as being most sustainable.
Videoconferencing. This has been enormous for SMEs. It increases efficiency, reduces costs, and enables people to maintain contact with each other, whether this be in relation to other staff, suppliers or customers. It does have some limitations (ie collaborating, brainstorming etc.) but it has proven to be more effective than almost any SMEs had imagined.
Workflow management software. Some SMEs have found that they’ve needed such software (ie Trello, Slack etc.) for effective team communication and project management.
Cost focus. In context, only those businesses that have really struggled emphasised the need to keep a tight reign on costs – but those that needed to certainly did!
But as noted above, arguably the key theme to emerge is that these changes will ‘stick’. When we return to Covid-normal, these changes won’t be reversed – they are largely here to stay.
Some examples of these positive changes …
Business owners found that the Covid lockdowns gave them time to reflect on whether their business is helping them to achieve their broader life goals. This is especially relevant for owners of micro businesses ...
“There was definitely an upside to Covid for me personally and that does radiate through to the business. The benefit was more along the lines of a spiritual awakening. In lockdown you have time to stop and smell the roses. It gives you the opportunity to think about the business and what options you have and what vision you have.” (Online tea merchant, sole trader)
“One of the things that came out of Covid was that it has made me question how I want to live my life. I’m not sure I want to get back on planes and spend so much time in a plane like I used to – because it was crazy … And Covid has made me realise that I don’t actually need much money to live – if you take out travel, I actually don’t need much at all.” (Investment Banking, 7 FTEs)
“I’m actually selling the hairdressing salon right now and moving to the Sunny Coast and starting a different business! Don’t get me wrong, the hairdressing is going bananas but I just took the time to think about things and decided it’s time for a new direction for my family.” (Hairdresser, Sole Trader)
SMEs found that their hand was forced – many HAD to embrace eCommerce if they wanted to sell their goods/services …
“There’s definitely a role for online and I just didn’t have that up and running before. I do now, that’s for sure. And when there’s a lockdown – or even the threat of really bad weather – we can pretty quickly switch online and it’s almost seamless … In fact 18 months ago I wouldn’t have thought it’s even possible.” (Health Facilitator, Sole Trader)
“It sort of strengthened my resolve to start doing more of my own products and to do that I had to set up an online business from scratch basically. I don’t know if I would have done it without Covid.” (Online Retail, Sole Trader)
“Covid accelerated the full end-to-end customer service online experience. At LAST!! So a customer can book a storage unit online, lay down the deposit, turn up at the storage facility with their PIN and really not have to talk to anyone.” (Self Storage, 450 FTEs)
SMEs have adapted to allowing/facilitating working-from-home quite seamlessly. Looking forward, most will be seeking a hybrid model …
“I’ve always offered a flexible workplace arrangement and that will continue, but I do feel quite strongly about the impact on culture and collaboration. It’s important to get the right balance between that and working from home so I always say the majority of the team should be in the office to combat that.” (Communications consultancy, 20 FTEs)
“We use a shared office space and we come in on Tuesday and Thursday but the rest is work-from-home. Everyone loves it. It’s brilliant.” (Cafes/wholesale, 12 FTEs, 30 casuals)
“We had a flexible working arrangement in the business before Covid anyway so that was an easy transition to make during lockdown. Post Covid, we offer our staff up to two days a week working from home if they want to but only if it is the best solution for business productivity. I do feel it’s more effective being in the office but I also acknowledge for some people it’s nice to have a change from that working environment.” (Skincare importer/wholesaler, 21 FTEs)
“Generally we’re all in the office … That said, we do try to accommodate flexibility where we can and that has been the big change. We’ve always been very rigid with start times and finish times but now we’re having that conversation because we realise that’s what some people are looking for.” (Steel manufacture, 56 FTEs)
Videoconferencing goes hand-in-hand with working-from-home : it's difficult to WFH without VC. But now that SMEs have embraced VC, they are of the view it will stick ...
“We’d already been 100% flexible and any of us could work from home. If anything I think that’s even more acceptable now and anyone you’re meeting with can just be done virtually – so I think those days of flights to Melbourne for 4 meetings and then a flight home at 10pm are done with.” (Energy start-up, 2 FTEs)
“The big change has been videoconferencing, that’s been huge for me. Just enormous. My whole business is international – I’m overseas almost the whole time – and it has meant that I don’t have to travel – well I haven’t been ABLE to travel so I haven’t had a choice. But that’s not coming back.” (Investment Banking, 7 FTEs)
“We started telephone consultations with patients if the appointment wasn’t equipment or therapy-based which saved us from having to cancel them. That’s been well received so we’re keeping that option going.” (Health clinic, 4 PTEs + contractors)
SMEs had already been embracing workflow management software, but it has dialled up further in lockdown as they have sought to maintain better control/comms … “A lot of the software we’ve embraced will stick – like the Atlassian crowd, Trello is very good. We also use Slack but it’s almost a lazy version of email for people and you can’t keep track of what’s been said so I don’t like that so much … But the software innovation has been phenomenal and that will definitely stick.” (Branding consultancy, 13 FTEs)
“We introduced Slack during Covid and that’s definitely going to stick. I absolutely love Slack, it’s a great platform for collaboration. We use it to talk about our individual workloads, we can upload documents and share emails on it from Outlook. It helps to minimise email traffic and keep the conversation in the one place. Interface is everything to me – Slack is very much ‘the Xero of the organisational workplace’.” (Communications consultancy, 20 FTEs)
For businesses that have done it tough, ‘cost discipline’ has been the order of the day. Consider the following comments from panellists who have struggled through this period … our gym, restaurant and photocopying shop …
“The financial discipline will stick, and also being more of a numbers person in terms of investment decisions. Previously, any investment decisions I’ve made have been done on a gut feeling but that’s now changed.” (Fitness centre, 0 FTEs/15 Casuals)
“We’ve combined the two restaurants’ kitchens into one. That’s been something we’ve wanted to do for a very long time and we just had to do it through Covid to cut costs – but the efficiency benefits are just enormous.” (Restaurants, 48 FTEs)
“We just couldn’t afford the rent and all the on-costs that go with leasing space so we’ve moved back into the home, enclosed the car port, and now we run from home. We worked out it’s saved us $16,500 in the first 6 months alone. We had no choice, we just had to cut costs.” (Photocopying/Print Shop, Sole Trader)
Conclusion
Lockdowns are a nightmare for those that have to endure them. But businesses have managed to see some benefits and in fact SMEs have driven changes through their organisation that are so effective that they will be retained when we emerge from the lockdown coma. In many instances the changes were already in the business owner’s mind … they just hadn’t got around to implementing them. But in other cases, the changes are new – they were forced upon the SME if it wanted to function – and business owners have seen the benefits of such changes.
