Beating OmiCron shouldn’t be difficult for your small business

OMICRON – The New Avatar

OmiCron comes after Covid Variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta.

The ‘variant of concern’ B.1.1.529 – now christened Omicron after the 15^th letter of the Greek alphabet – discovered in South Africa has triggered a wave of fear.

The appearance of Omicron has already impacted the financial market and stock market prices have fallen drastically causing losses to many investors.

The appearance of new variant can also largely impact travel and transport which will ultimately impact businesses. Many countries have already introduced travel bans and restrictions on Southern African and other countries in an effort to contain Omicron’s spread.

In this scenario, what precautions can be taken in order to have minimum impact on their businesses? Here are 5 ideas on how Small businesses can prepare themselves for the new Covid variant OMICRON

1.Go Digital:

Due to technological advancement, businesses have largely embraced digital ways of doing business and in these kinds of pandemic days, that has become highly imperative and important in order to run the business smoothly without any hindrance.

There are many digital tools available to run the business. For example, for recruiting talents there are many HR portals available and getting the right kind of resources online is very easy in this technologically advanced era. Some good sites for this purpose are Indeed, Naukri.com, LinkedIn, Freshersworld.com and Quickr etc.

Business operations can also be handled through the project management tools that are available online. There are tools like backlog, todoist, and wonderlist which can be used to manage the projects effectively.

For lead management, there are many CRM tools, which can be used to improve sales, quality of service, and customer interactions.

Whether you generate and track new leads, want to fix your sales process, or to retain existing customers, CRM systems can help you in optimizing all of these processes.

Hence, all businesses, especially small businesses, need a CRM to grow the customer base and grow the business. Many CRMs provide third-party integration to social media like WhatsApp, FaceBook, and Indiamart, etc., which can help in bringing all the leads into one place and hence, follow-ups and conversions become easy. There are many CRM products available in the market such as HelloLeads, ZohoCRM, and Freshworks which can be explored and utilized, especially in these pandemic days to improve sales.

2. Get Vaccinated:

I am sure all your employees and team members are already vaccinated for existing Covid variants.

Also, get all your employees vaccinated well in advance, once the vaccine for this new variant is available.

The health of the business is largely dependant on the health of the employees. Some employees might have inhibitions in trying out or in taking the new vaccine. Some rewards can be announced to motivate people to get vaccinated. Health and safety awareness workshops can be conducted for the benefit of employees.

3. Make your Office Safe and Protected from OMICRON:

Disinfect all the areas in the office premises at regular frequencies (every day before the start of work and at the end) using effective disinfectants. Disinfect the frequently used places, and things, in the office and also the items received from outside vendors. Use of thermal scanners to monitor the body temperature of the employees before entering the office. Provide hand sanitizer to employees, customers & other vendors entering the office and make sure they wear a standard face mask. Try to reduce the usage of air conditioners at the office as much as possible. Also, use air purifiers to reduce the risk of infections through the air.

4. Be prepared for the Work from Home option:

The first, second, and third waves of Covid had already given us exposure to get ourselves prepared for the work from home (WFH) arrangements for the employees.

With the new variant ‘OMICRON’ it is possible we soon look at lockdowns and travel restrictions. Work from home (WFH) scenario needs to be well planned for the smooth running of the business. If some work requires physical presence, provide shifts / allow employees to work in batches and ask them to work from office on alternate / specific days. Provide enough workspace for employees to maintain social distance. Other days, prefer to opt for work from home option.

5. The mask is not going away!

Like other variants, Omicron most likely is transmittable in the air. So continue to wear masks especially in public places, during shoppings, and when you travel or in situations where you think you are near unknown people.

As a world and business, we have managed Covid Variants Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta. And I am sure with this experience, beating OmiCron shouldn’t be difficult for businesses.