Life Challenges With Covid

Most of the work people were doing through the Covid-19 pandemic was challenging because, for the most part, they could not meet in person. To reduce the spread of the virus, authorities implemented new rules that meant that people were not meeting in person. Companies and businesses implemented rules that had staff work from home which was assisting them to some extent but also made coordinating difficult. 

While we were adapting to the changes, as a company, we were working in various verticals, which made the work that we did quite manageable. Some aspects were running smoothly, and others needed some adjusting to.

While we cannot predict the changes that would take place in the months to come, there were quite a few that we were struggling to adjust to. Covid-19 caused a massive drop in sales in our company with a direct impact that took its toll on our company in April 2020. Now, after two years into the pandemic, we restructured and adapted to the new way of living with Covid. We work with 100% Remote Operations and ensure that all of our brands, products, and services are done within the highest and most stringent industry standards. Our new approach has given us the freedom & flexibility to reach & serve our customers within a record service level of 99.7%.

We had to make changes and could no longer work the way we did in the past. We no longer work traditionally, like everyone was pre the pandemic. We stopped having offices and staff operating from a centralized office. We are much more agile and can deliver our services in a faster & more efficient way. When you are getting the work that we handle done remotely, it does become easier to coordinate with them, and people can get things done while being safe at home.

We had to make changes to the way we were communicating with everyone. While we were meeting people and getting things done in person, we had to implement some measures to make sure everyone was comfortable with the way we were working. We now work on a remote basis. We changed our supply chain strategy where we outsource all of our services, which allows us to create more opportunities for local businesses in our country of operations. Additionally, we were saving on rent because we could shut many of the offices that ran and had our staff get as much as they could from home. They were happy to meet these requirements, with many of them even traveling to other states so they could work from a different scenery.

Unfortunately, much like everything else, working remotely has a few pros and cons. Remote working gave us the freedom to save on overheads (office) that we were able to cut in May 2020. The challenges were to create a detailed and comprehensive supply chain that had other parties built into such operations. We succeeded in building it within six months in the USA. After that, we did the same in Canada.

We work remotely because we have trained a team that is 100% fully capable of getting their challenges met and have the comfort & freedom to do this from their comfort place. That also meant that we no longer had to make changes to the way we were running our offices. We did not have to worry about cleaning and sanitizing the offices to make sure everyone was safe. We do not have centralized offices anymore. However, along with our partners, we follow all Governmental laws, procedures, and implementations when we provide our products and services.

While many changes were taking place, we thought that it would make sense to stick to the same working hours so that our clients could connect with us without any difficulty. That being the case, we still work from 9 AM to 5 PM, Monday to Friday with Saturday and Sunday off. Additionally, with a lot of the work that we are doing being remote, we end up putting in a lot more hours and sometimes spend our off-work hours gathering and finishing the paperwork and other processes. 

We were always using a secure platform to do as much work as possible. With the platform working well for us, we thought we would use the same one through the pandemic. Additionally, we used apps that worked well for our clients. We also insist on most of the work we did being over email instead of other platforms. We communicated with our clients using Whatsapp and other apps so we could keep in touch without leaving our homes.

When it comes to our meetings, we work on getting them done virtually. We were successful in doing that with all of our meetings with our customers. With our vendors, sometimes we have to do the meetings in person. As such, we follow all the safety rules associated with keeping everyone safe. Additionally, we were working with video calling apps like Zoom, WhatsApp, Hangout, Microsoft Team, and others. We find the best platforms that we work with depending on the requirements of our clients. We had a few clients who could not adapt to Zoom, and we would communicate with them using Google meet or a different alternative. We also participate in virtual public events and business expos to connect with various clients and get the brand better reach that we are trying to work with. 

Covid-19 has substantially changed our life. We adapt quickly by anticipating new scenarios allowing us to cut costs, restructure and launch our new work strategy with our associates, vendors, and customers while maintaining the highest levels of providing 100% Quality Jobs and Services.

If you are looking for assistance with Canada’s international trading, consolidation, brokerage, logistic, consulting, and food services, connect with us at A & Z Consulting. We have worked with various clients and understand their requirements, and they reconfigure services that would make sense to them. We also make changes that they can incorporate and have teams that would give them the best outcomes for the work that they are handling. If you want a better understanding of our services, please click here. If you are looking to connect with us or think we can assist with some of your needs, please click here.