When your employees work remotely, how do you know they are actually working? Will they exhibit the execution discipline needed to get work done? Are they less productive working from home? Or will their productivity dramatically increase?

The aim of every organisation is to achieve its business goals. For this to happen, there is a need to have the right people in the workforce. When recruiting prospective employees, every organisation follows a recruitment process—which requires using recruitment assessment tools—whether it is clearly defined and documented or not.

In a poll carried out in one of our recent Webinars on Talent Selection in Our New Normal, all attendees submitted that they had been affected by a bad hire. Other studies confirm this position; for example, Brandonhall.com stated that 3 out of 4 employers had experienced bad hires.

Workforce planning can be one of the best practices a company can imbibe to achieve its strategies. This vital practice should not be seen just as a plan with timelines but as a strategic organisational development activity.

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has shattered people’s lives in every possible way, has also not spared business and economics. As a result, individuals have lost their source of livelihood, students have been prevented from forging ahead with their education and several sectors like hospitality and aviation now face declining patronage.

Reducing business costs and cutting expenses will most likely be at the top of priorities, strategies and plans for a huge number of business executives across the world currently due to the effects the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has had on businesses and the economy in general.

These are indeed uncertain times. The nature of the world today, being so globalised and fast-evolving with rapidly spreading digital technologies has been our saving grace for continued productivity through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus pandemic – now referred to as a black swan event – has caused unprecedented devastation and disruption to businesses. Across the globe, Governments have shut down borders, issued anti-crowd gathering orders, restricted interstate movements and enforced lockdown to inhibit the spread of the virus. The slowdown of economic activities has led to a sharp decline in trade and investment and raises the risk of an unprecedented economic recession.

The rapid global spread of the Coronavirus has quickly overshadowed other recent epidemics in both size and scope.
In addition to its deadly human toll and disruption to billions of people’s lives, the economic damage is already far-reaching and significant. Goldman Sachs estimates that global economic growth will be zero in 2020, due to the virus.