How Can We Really Be Ready For Life After Lockdown?
How Can We Really Be Ready For Life After Lockdown?
Posted By admin |19 Jun 2020
With so much talk swirling around about “the new normal”, “our new reality”, and “what life looks like in a post-COVID world”, it can be hard to think about what we should actually be doing to prepare in a practical sense for the changes we’ll surely be facing as lockdown, slowly but surely, continues to be lifted.
Non-essential shops are now open, from massive chain stores to your local independent plant shop, schools are scheduled to reopen after the summer holidays as per usual, households can now mix in outdoor spaces and there’s talk of lots of other sectors, such as gyms and some restaurants opening up again. However, all of these come with social distancing caveats, which is something we should probably start getting used to, and for good reason, it’s the best possible way to stop the virus from spreading. However, as soon as one headline pops up saying it’s safe to go to your local pub quiz/yoga class/knitting circle, there comes another saying exactly the opposite!
This makes it hard for business owners and employees alike to ready themselves for “life after lockdown”, as what that actually means is always changing. In order to be truly “ready” (or at least, as ready as we can be), all we can do is keep on our toes and be prepared to roar back into action as soon as we can!
Restart Your Marketing
If you haven’t stopped your marketing already - good for you! If you have, now is the time to pick things back up if you possibly can. Fortunately, most marketing is (unsurprisingly) happening online, and we all have a bit more time to mess around on (also unsurprising) social media. Online and digital marketing is a fantastic tool in your arsenal, as even if your business is at a bit of a standstill, you can still get your name out there. Brand awareness is so important to giving you that extra initial boost when you start things back up. With everyone else in the country online, you should try and make sure your business is there too.Be Transparent
This is often advisable anyways, but right now, it couldn’t be more important. Transparency is vital for all manner of stakeholders - your staff, your customers, your board of directors if you have one, your suppliers, your manufacturers, pretty much everyone who deals with your organisation regularly. You might think that this is a bit obvious, but sometimes it’s the most difficult thing to do. It’s hard to tell your team you don’t know when you’ll be back to the office, or to say to your customers you won’t be opening for business, but it will serve you well in the long run, and help you build trust over what is one of, if not the most, difficult period in recent history.Have Processes in Place
When the green light for your sector, industry or organisation goes off, you want to be ready to leap back into action! Do your staff need to know the processes for coming back into work. Will they need PPE when they do return? Do you need to adjust the layout of your premises to comply with social distancing? How will your team get to your office? Do they need to use public transport? Should they? There are a multitude of questions that you’ll need to answer when your company is allowed to get back to regular business, so it’s worth thinking about what the process of returning to your normal will look like. Even if you need to change it when the time comes, having at least a basic idea of what your return to normal entails can be invaluable to you and to your team. Guest Blog by Kara Smith, Content Executive at Embryo Digital.
By JCI Manager