In the first quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was hitting its peak in different countries, the number of Netflix subscribers went up by 15.8 million and they had never increased so much in a three-month span. However, there were other companies that were making a record, including unicorn startup Airbnb, only it was a different kind of record altogether. From April to June 2020, there was a 67% fall in revenue from what it had been during the same time period in 2019. So, how did two tech companies, each having high-performing workforces who were already familiar with collaborative and remote working tools, end up having such different experiences?
The fact that these two companies had polar opposite experiences wasn’t because the pandemic had differently affected the companies’ workforce. In fact, the companies were actually pushed closer together because they had to depend on video conferencing, integrated phone services and messaging apps. Instead, Shay Benhamou highlighted that the differences was due to how these companies were providing their products and services and how COVID-19 impacted the way people were or were not able to experience them.
For instance, in the case of Airbnb, a company providing global hospitality services, COVID-19 created problems because people couldn’t travel. Hence, technological advancement didn’t help, but for Netflix that provides in-home streaming services, there was a lot of room for experiencing growth during quarantines and lockdowns. This means that the impact of the pandemic depended on the business and its offerings. However, according to Shay Benhamou, there is one impact that can be seen on all tech companies and startups, regardless of the product or service they are providing; adoption of the remote work model.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, many high-tech companies and startups had already been flirting with the possibility of hybrid models and remote work. As a matter of fact, some of them had already gone remote and had enjoyed unquestionable success. Therefore, Shay Benhamou says that it is not surprising that mainstay tech companies like Twitter and Facebook are now reconsidering huge office spaces that have long leases and don’t help the bottom lines of the companies. There is a good chance that work-from-home may be adopted by these tech companies in the long run, even after the pandemic is over.
Apart from that, the way tech companies communicate and function has also undergone change due to COVID. High tech companies and startups are known to have particular ways of functioning, which is usually chaotic, fast and extremely productive. These businesses rely on quick communication and speed, so they work with agility inside open-floor and functional offices. Such offices are great for collaborations, unplanned chats and meetings, which allow hours of work to be accomplished in a matter of minutes. When decisions have to be made quickly, people want to be able to huddle with their team for bouncing off ideas and then taking things forward.
But, Shay Benhamou indicates that due to the global coronavirus pandemic, these random meetings and team huddles have become all but impossible. As people are now working remotely and with social distancing measures in place, it is not possible to do any of it. In-person on-the-fly huddles work great, but it is not that simple to pull off impromptu group phone and video calls remotely. First off, there has to be a detailed calendar for organizations to manage work-from-home successfully. Time has to be blocked-off for meetings and work in order to be productive.
There is a slim chance that all team members will be available on a random call. In fact, Shay Benhamou believes that expecting remote team members to be readily available, considering the obligations people have to handle when working from home, is highly unfair. Consequently, rather than impromptu meetings and communications, tech companies have had to consider daily stand-up meetings for maintaining similar levels of productivity and collaboration. They are being held on a daily or weekly basis and the purpose is to provide the team with a shared understanding of how much progress everyone has made.
Thanks to technology like integrated video conferencing, along with audiovisual solutions, these meetings have become easier to conduct. The sales teams of high-tech startups and companies have also been affected by the pandemic because they relied on events, conferences and in-person meetings for drumming up business, but now they don’t have a major vehicle they can use for generating leads, building relationships, or making sales. The high-tech sales teams have had to come up with different ways to stay on the radar of their prospects and customers and do it from their own homes.
As per Shay Benhamou, one of the best ways for accomplishing this is by putting the spotlight on themselves on social media platforms, especially LinkedIn. In the last couple of years, engagement, membership and sales opportunities have been consistently rising on LinkedIn. There were some savvy marketing leaders and sales reps who were ahead of the curve and developed impressive followings in the beginning by posting best practices, anecdotal tips and thought-starters. Now, everyone is trying to do the same, but sales leaders of tech companies shouldn’t be discouraged from diving in head first.
Due to the nature of LinkedIn’s algorithm, and the connections of sales executives of high-tech companies, it will not be difficult for them to garner a following in their industry on social media networks. It is recommended by Shay Benhamou that the sales team of tech companies should start investing some time to learn the ins and outs of social media platforms, particularly LinkedIn. While they may not achieve overnight success, but they will be able to get results if they stay consistent.
Along with these effects, the customer service teams of high-tech companies have also become burdened due to the coronavirus pandemic. Shay Benhamou states that the businesses are now focusing on establishing pre-defined meeting times and rigid working hours for helping their teams cope with the increasing responsibilities that have been seen due to the work-from-home model.
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