Small businesses are bearing the brunt of the work-from-home arrangements forced on most industries as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A report from Findex, which surveyed 280 businesses across Australia and New Zealand on the impact of distributed working arrangements (working from home) during COVID-19, found that one in four small businesses had taken a hit in productivity as a result of the arrangements. Big business, on the other hand, reported the opposite, with 40 per cent of businesses with 500+ employees saying they found significant or small increases in productivity.
The report also noted that three in five SMEs said their business operations have been hampered by the COVID-19 restrictions and shutdowns. Meanwhile, three in five businesses with 1000+ employees said they had largely been unaffected by the pandemic.
Thomas Paule, Chief Digital, Technology and Marketing Officer at Findex, offered an explanation for the results, saying, “Larger businesses will have been more likely pre-pandemic to have already invested in the hardware, system and tools that supported a smoother shift to working from home.
“Smaller businesses are less likely to have made this investment, or deliver services requiring physical shopfronts to be operational,” Paule added. “They have consequently struggled to adapt and been hit harder by COVID.”
The report found that a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) is a significant factor factor in priductivity.
“A third of businesses with a business continuity plan said they were more productive during COVID,” Paule said. “This figure dropped to just one in ten when businesses without a BCP were consulted. No one could have predicted COVID, and Australia hasn’t experienced economic or societal disruption on this scale for decades. But our report does show there are commercial rewards for investing in futureproofing and contingency planning.
“Again, this is where SMEs can become vulnerable,” Paule added. “The investment, resourcing and skills in preparing BCPs can often be out of reach for small businesses, whose main focus is the day-the-day.”
The report also suggests that despite the challenges, most businesses have come to like the work-from-home arrangement, with 66 per cent of employees surveyed saying that they’d want to continue working for home at least a few days a week going forward, with one in five saying they have no desire to return to the office full-time.
“Despite initial challenges, employers and employees alike have embraced the rewards of distributed working,” Paule said. “Now, it’s on employers of all sizes to really need to listen to and respond to the desire for long-term flexible working arrangements.
“COVID-19 has likely accelerated the advancement of flexible work by decades and given us the opportunity to finally build a culture that allows long-overdue work flexibility.”
