Impact of Covid-19 on BTR Association and Recommendations

This report discusses the impact of Covid-19 on BTR Association and provides recommendations to address the key issues faced by the organization. It covers HR practices, remote working, motivation, and technology usage. The report suggests producing an app for better communication, providing internet allowances, and mental health support programs to employees.

Of Business
Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Taking multiple steps to manage and integrate an organization's activities is referred to as
operations management. In the aftermath of the covid-19 epidemic, when companies all around
the world are suffering significant losses, the BTR Association has also been impacted. Work-
from-home circumstances cause a variety of difficulties in the workplace, therefore BTR
management must be taken into consideration. This is why BTR's upper executives needs
Technical Assistance for its operations.
Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on organizations....................................................................4
Key Issues present at BTR...........................................................................................................6
Recommendations........................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10
Books and Journal......................................................................................................................10
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................11
Reflection on skills developed during this assessment..............................................................11

PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Bedford town residencies is shortly known as BTR have their headquarters in Bedford
Town center. The company has a mission to give suitable housing facilities to the community
and having their focus to support individuals who are helpless in the society. Association has
established with general purpose to provide different housing blocks in various locations in
Bedford Town (Rakshit, and Paul, 2020). The company is famous to provide various services
like emergency hospitals transitional flats and many more to their customers and has a large
number of staff working with the association and different teams of the company. This report
contains the impact of COVID19 on the business of BTR and has several important issues that
are created within BTR association to address them effectively. This report also contains various
recommendations which can be made to the BTR association to deal with this pandemic
situations and issues that arose in the company.
MAIN BODY
Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on organizations
Covid-19 stands for coronavirus disease 2019 which was first found in China and spread
on a rapid pace all over the world. This covid-19 has various impacts on businesses of various
countries. This has completely changed the working of the organization and also has its impact
on Bedford town residencies. There are various impacts that has been faced by BTR due to this
covid-19 in the organization. The major impact of covid-19 on different functions that are
followed in the company are explained below:
HR practices: The spread of Covid-19 virus and the proclamation of closure has forced
organizations to adhere with the lockdown's limitations, and working from home is the only
practical alternative for a businesses to survive. Human connection, which is the foundation of
human resource management, is not adequately addressed by HR practices, resulting in a lack of
communication and coordination among employees. In case of BTR, it became difficult for
human resource management of the company to communicate with the employees and make
effective performance management plan. There are various functions of human resource

department in the company to be fulfilled which became very difficult for the employees in
human resource department as there are seven communication barriers between employees
(Lloyd-Smith, 2020). This has been also depicts in the operations and working of the
organization.
Remote working employees: Employees that work remotely for an organization give their
services on the job site or in remote regions where the company operates. Because the firm
provides housing units services, numerous personnel have been employed to offer security
services to the residents, and they are expected to perform their duties on-site. It has a
detrimental influence on the BTR’s employees' health and safety, as well as their motivation to
work for the company. Other workers of the company have embraced work from home and are
able to work with their families, while remotely working individuals must go to other locations
to fulfil their responsibilities and are also separated from their families. Apart from that, there is
a greater chance of BTR in assisting since the infection is fatal and can result in a significant loss
of health. This has had an influence on their mental health since everyone is afraid of the terrible
infection.
Motivation in employees: Covid-19 has a significant influence on organizational
communication and has a negative influence on workers' mental health since they are alone and
unable to see anybody. Individuals' mental health suffers as a result of their feelings of isolation,
which can cause a lack of work engagement (Budhwar, and Cumming, 2020). It became critical
for the BTR to hire personnel who are engaged enough to conduct business activities in order to
fulfil the group's aims. Motivation is not really a one-time event; it needs ongoing training for
employees to keep them motivated in their jobs.
Use of technology: The only item on which Covid-19 has a beneficial influence is on technology
usage. Following the country's shutdown, the usage of technology has exploded. People utilise
technology to interact with one another. For example, zoom conferences have replaced face-to-
face talks, and daily Face-to-Face Conversation has been substituted by WhatsApp conversations
and WhatsApp talks. As individuals become increasingly independent and reliant on the usage of
technology to interact with one another, a variety of technologies have arisen throughout this
period (Ashbury, 2021). In the instance of BTR Association, the firm has also embraced
technology to interact with its staff, since email is used rather than face-to-face conversation. The

meeting, which was formerly held in person, is now held through Zoom video conference to
better understand the issues that employees in the company are facing.
Key Issues present at BTR
According to the perspective of Mark W. Johnson and Josh Suskewicz, 2020, the covid-19
pandemic has negatively impact the businesses and the association is required to focus on their
sustainability in the market. to continue their business in this pandemic the company has decided
to adopt work-from-home situation for their people so that they can be prevented from the spread
of virus and can be able to continue their business. But this is also resulted in various serious
issues among the employees which makes very difficult for the management to take operational
decisions for the business in work-from-home situation (Huber, and Helm, 2020). In case of
BTR association, the employees has basis various issues are working from home. To identify
these issues senior management of the company has requested all the employees to attend a
zoom meeting and explain the issues that are faced by them with this work from home situation.
There are several major issues that are aroused by employees and management of BTR in the
zoom meeting which are given below:
Failures of email communication: The BTR Association uses E-mail messaging to create good
contact between diverse personnel in the company before implementing lockdown across the
country. Because all workers are available within the company, they can interact effectively with
one another, and official publications and data are given to them via email. However, there was
always an issue at the moment in that workers overlooked and ignored the information we shared
by email. In the current situation, BTR workers communicate with one another via email, which
causes a great deal of trouble for the employees. Emails are not responded to for weeks, causing
delays in work and eventually affecting the company's efficiency. The top management has
determined that email answers slow down the organization's procedure. They require a stronger
communication system since it is critical for customers and other staff to interact effectively with
one another.
Excess to computers and laptops is not possible all the time: The staff members of the
association confront a significant problem including that they do not have constant access to their
computer system and laptops. Workers are unable to carry their computers and laptops with them
at all times due to the risk to their belongings. People in the BTR face this issue when senior

executives forces them to answer to emails on time. This is an issue because email can only be
accessed through their own laptops and PCs, and they are unable to take it with them all of the
time. In order to make work more flexible for employees, the company must identify ways to
assist employees in carrying out their tasks and responding to queries and other data on a timely
basis.
Internet connectivity and use of personal phones: There are so many facilities that are
provided with the infrastructure of the office such as broadband connections and landline to
communicate with each other in the office premises. In case of work from home the workers of
Bedford Town residencies uses their personal phones and internet connection which makes it
difficult for them to separate their personal as well as professional lives (Obayelu, Edewor, and
Ogbe, 2020). Employees are not ready to share their personal information with the contacts in
office as it is related to their privacy and their personal life. Apart from this there are many
employees who find it difficult to connect with the internet and craze and demand with the
association to provide broadband connection at their places so that they can be able to fulfill their
responsibilities in effective manner. Unavailability of resources in BTR is required to complete
the work creates several barriers in work that affects the smooth running of the business
operations. This creates a major problem for the company as employees deny to complete their
work with the help of their personal assets and demand official assets to complete the work.
Motivation to employees who work on-site: When workers who've been forced to work on site
learn about the resources available to employees who work from home, they lose interest in their
jobs. The BTR company is dealing with this problem since they discovered that employees who
go to onsite work run a significant risk of becoming infected with the virus and also wish to work
from home. It is critical for management to give adequate incentive to those workers working on
site who are unable to do it themselves. That's because they won't be able to join the Zoom
meeting during their onsite job because they don't have the appropriate equipment to do so. The
firm BTR is unable to encourage people to perform effectively and efficiently due to a lack of
interaction among employees and senior management.
Zoom Meeting: Company found Zoom conferences to be an effective way to communicate with
their employees, but it also proved to be a bad source of communication with the employees
because they are unable to communicate effectively due to a variety of factors such as broadband

internet, device accessibility, and so on. Apart from that, some employees in BTR has discovered
that holding a Zoom meeting is a time-consuming procedure that wastes time that might be better
spent on the organization's operations. A good data connection is required for a Zoom
conference, and poor internet connections might cause communication hurdles in the meeting
(World Health Organization, 2020). Barriers to communication are bad for both employees and
management in BTR since management will not be able to understand the difficulties that
employees are encountering, which will make employees even more irritated to work in the
business.
Recommendations
According to the viewpoint of Boris Grasberg and Robin Abrahams 2020, The key issues
that are discussed above is identified by the senior executives of the company BTR and in order
to resolve these key issues in effective manner they are required to provide effective working
environment to their employees. In order to address this issue, there are various
recommendations for BTR that can be provided to the management to take effective decisions
are provided below:
Produce an app for establishing better communication and can be accessible from mobile
phones: It is suggested that the firm create an application in order to improve communication
between employees, management, and other stakeholders of the organization. Employees in BTR
will be able to disconnect from their mobile phones, eliminating the need to bring their
computers and personal devices with them all of the time. This software will send out
notifications to employees of BTR in a timely way, allowing them to reply as quickly as
possible. Because there aren't many ways to teach staff on how to use the app, the app that has to
be designed for this purpose should be simply accessible and simple to use. This program will
assist the company in addressing two key issues: improved communication and access to the
organization via mobile phones, reducing the strain of constantly accessing laptops and PCs.
Internet allowances to the employees: One of the issue that employees have encountered is the
lack of internet access in their homes. Some workers also claimed that while they have the
choice to utilize infrastructure in the workplace, they must pay for internet access in their homes
in order to work for the company. They wanted broadband at their workplaces in BTR from high
management. Because it is practically impossible for a company to deliver broadband to each

and every employee's location, it is suggested that the organization issue internet allowances to
employees that are equivalent to or comparable to their internet costs. It will assist employees of
BTR in covering their internet expenditures and would boost employee motivation in the
business by increasing their compensation.
Mental health support and motivation programs to employees: Due to the covid-19
epidemic, the entire country is on quarantine, and workers who work from home feel isolated in
their homes. They suffer from a severe case of depression as a result of their feelings of isolation,
which has a negative impact on their mental health. It may have an impact on their work because
they will be unable to offer their all to the operations. Because human resources are the backbone
of every business, it is critical to give mental health assistance to its personnel. As a result, it is
advised that employees of BTR will be provided with a mental health support program that will
enable them to get numerous ideas on how to enhance their mental health and assist the business
to the maximum extent possible. People who are in work from home do not have access to a
good working environment or training, which has an impact on their motivation. Along with
mental health assistance, a business may give incentive programs to its employees, which will
encourage them to work toward the firm's goals and objectives in a timely way. Various
individuals in the BTR Association are working on-site in this challenging scenario and are
feeling demotivated because other workers are engaged from the comfort of their homes. The
business might give numerous incentives to those workers who supply their services by working
remotely in order to incentivize them. Increases in their salary, as well as other benefits such as
sick pay and travel, may help BTR encourage their remote workers (Newman, and Ford, 2021).
The preceding guidelines recommends organizations in dealing with the primary
difficulties that they confront as a result of the covid-19 pandemic. These suggestions provide
them a fresh perspective on how to deal with employee issues in the workplace. BTR
Association can use these suggestions, as well as their own organization, to fulfil their aims and
objectives.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been concluded that covid-19 pandemic has what a great
impact on businesses in various manner and it has also impacted the business of BTR
association. There are so many functions that are performed in the company which has impacted

with the impact of covid-19 and the management has also identified several important issues that
are rose in the association due to this pandemic and management is required to find effective
solutions for the same. Various recommendations provided above helps the association to solve
these key issues an effective manner.
REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Rakshit, D. and Paul, A., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on sectors of Indian economy and business
survival strategies. Available at SSRN 3620727.
Lloyd-Smith, M., 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic: resilient organisational response to a low-
chance, high-impact event. BMJ Leader.
Budhwar, P. and Cumming, D., 2020. New directions in management research and
communication: lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic. British Journal of
Management, 31(3), p.441.
Ashbury, F.D., 2021. COVID-19 and supportive cancer care: key issues and
opportunities. Current Opinion in Oncology, 33(4), pp.295-300.
Huber, S.G. and Helm, C., 2020. COVID-19 and schooling: evaluation, assessment and
accountability in times of crises—reacting quickly to explore key issues for policy,
practice and research with the school barometer. Educational Assessment, Evaluation
and Accountability, 32(2), pp.237-270.
Obayelu, A.E., Edewor, S.E. and Ogbe, A.O., 2020. Trade effects, policy responses and
opportunities of COVID-19 outbreak in Africa. Journal of Chinese Economic and
Foreign Trade Studies.
World Health Organization, 2020. COVID-19: operational guidance for maintaining essential
health services during an outbreak: interim guidance, 25 March 2020 (No. WHO/2019-
nCoV/essential_health_services/2020.1). World Health Organization.
Newman, S.A. and Ford, R.C., 2021. Five Steps to Leading Your Team in the Virtual COVID-19
Workplace. Organizational Dynamics, 50(1), p.100802.

PART 2
Reflection on skills developed during this assessment
The project allows me to develop a variety of skills that will be useful in achieving my long-term
objectives. It gives me the opportunity to learn new skills and gain information that I can utilize
in my everyday life to help me succeed in my chosen career. The reflective learning approach
has proven to be quite useful in identifying diverse lessons that has aided me in achieving my
long-term and medium-term objectives. On the basis of my learning in this subject, I've created a
reflective style of learning which is explained below:
Kolb reflection theory
Kolb's reflective model was created to assist people in learning from their own experiences. Due
to this, Kolb’s reflective learning style is sometimes known as "experiential learning". Learning,
according to Kolb, may be broken down into four phases. The first of these four stages is
tangible learning, which describes the experience someone gains while working. Following the
tangible observation, it is time for reflective observation, which requires the participant to
describe and reflect on their abilities, including how much they liked the experience and what
obstacles they experienced during those encounters. Abstract conceptualization aids in the
analysis of various abilities learned and the measures that may be taken to develop those skills.
Finally, active experimentation should be utilized to put those changes into practice, and the
cycle will continue when the individual will encounter something new. This project also offers
some learning opportunities based on the experiences listed below.
Concrete learning: I need to concentrate and investigate the association in order to finish the
job. I had to do a lot of research to figure out the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic on the
organization, and their varied functions also assisted me in identifying numerous hurdles that
made it tough for the firm to manage workers working from home. When employees working
from home are unable to properly interact with one another, I have found that there are several
communication issues. Preparing the report also enabled me to conduct more study on written
communication in order to properly and efficiently communicate my views to the audience.
During the investigation, I learned a lot of new things, such as how to compare statics and

numerical data. The project's recommendation provider assists me in honing my critical thinking
skills and resolving issues that stand in the way of success and organization.
Reflective observation: I find it tough to confront the obstacles that arise during the project, and
that is the reason I give it my all in order to accomplish it. I am aware of the primary issue that
exists between employees and management, namely, a lack of communication. The initiative
taught me about communication and the difficulties that might arise in an organization as a result
of communication obstacles. In order to give ideas for a project that would result in a successful
organization, I focused on my critical thinking abilities, which allowed me to think like senior
management in order to tackle the organization's key challenges. I've gained abilities that enable
me to analyze statistical and quantitative data and create useful data for this report.
Abstract conceptualization: Abstract conceptualization aids in identifying the many abilities
that an individual develops during a project, as well as the steps they may take to better those
skills and the project. As it has been determined, the aforementioned project will assist me in
improving my written communication abilities, which will aid me in achieving my professional
objectives. Working on my vocabulary will help me enhance my writing communication abilities
even more. I definitely need to work on my grammar errors if I'm going to be able to give an
effective report for project purposes. In order to give advice for my students, I also need to
improve my critical thinking which will help me in my next projects to complete in effective
manner.
Active experimentation: The improvements that were assessed in the previous stage of learning
are applied in a real-life project in Indore during the active experimentation process. As it is
necessary to enhance my vocabulary and correct grammatical faults in order to produce an
excellent project that effectively communicates ideas and concepts to the audience. I've taken
many efforts to increase my vocabulary, including conducting frequent Google searches for new
words and setting objectives to improve my grammatical mistakes. I'll go through several real-
life scenarios in order to enhance my critical thinking and make advice for real-life
circumstances.
With the aid of this learning model, I was able to determine that by successfully finishing
this task, I had improved my skills. Communication, numeracy, problem solving, collaboration,
time management, and many other abilities have improved as a result of this initiative. This

project, in addition to providing me with knowledge on the recommended topic, also equips me
with all of these abilities in various ways. By submitting a written assignment, I will be able to
develop my communication abilities by interpreting diverse numerical data. I've increased my
numeracy skills by resolving difficulties that the company was having. I've also developed my
problem-solving abilities, and this project demands me to work with four to six team members,
which enables me to build my collaboration skills.