Firms shift to new ways of doing business
It will be a whole new world postCOVID-19 community quarantine with businesses implementing more restraints and protective behavior in offices and factories. Amb. Benedicto Yujuico, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, noted that the one thing going for business is that the COVID-19 pandemic happened in this age of Internet. Technology plays a significant role in helping business back on its feet.
“With the aid of technology, more businesses and people will be working from home,” said Yujuico, who heads the country’s largest business association with affiliates from various international chambers of commerce.
“We will have more meetings via Internet. We will be avoiding unnecessary person to person contact. Breakfast, lunch and dinner meeting will be at a minimum,” he said as among the new ways business will adopt post-ECQ.
For those in the restaurant business, he said, waiters will be wearing face masks and gloves and tables will be much farther from each other. “We will order from disposable menus. It’s going to be a whole new world,” he said.
Shaking hands may no longer be part of the customary practice when closing a business deal.
All these measures are meant to protect everyone’s health until such time that a vaccine is found.
While all precautions are put in place, Jose Maria “Joey” A. Concepcion III, presidential adviser for entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder, has urged for a rapid mass testing. More than 130 companies have participated in the private sector initiative Project Antibody Rapid Test Kits (ARK) to test their employees. Project ARK aims to bring in one million rapid testing kits this week.
The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is already preparing minimum health standards, a set of protocols that business operations must follow post-ECQ, in collaboration with the Department of Health and the Department of Labor and Employment.
DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said that best hygiene and health measures practiced among leading export companies should be the new protocol in business operations as the country prepares for the post-ECQ scenario.
“Minimum health standards such as strict social distancing, wearing of face masks, presence of sanitation stations, taking of body temperature, and provision of vitamins must always be observed in work and public places," Lopez said.
"Likewise, the conduct of COVID19 tests, provision of nearby accommodations and shuttle services, allowing more work-from-home arrangements, and healthcare preparedness and insurance from enterprises, should be the new normal as we ease into the new way of doing business,” he added.
The trade chief acknowledged the importance of continuing workingfrom-home arrangements where possible to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that the rise of the e-commerce industry and delivery models should be further enhanced even after the ECQ.
The trade chief explained that these measures must be exercised in order to minimize the health risk among workers. He further emphasized that these be strictly required once other sectors are allowed resume and conduct businesses.
“We need to have a new way of doing business to ensure that our significant gains during the ECQ and the collective efforts in flattening the curve will not be put to waste once ECQ is fully lifted,” the trade secretary said.
“It is accepted that health takes primacy over the economy, but there is no dichotomy between the two if we take precautionary health measures when we do business and work with other people to minimize any health risk in a post-ECQ environment,” Lopez added.
“As we continue to collaborate with different industries, we call on the cooperation of all our partners in the private sector to maintain best practices through observing health protocols and sustaining measures for employees’ welfare. Only then can we heal as one and move forward as one,” Lopez said.