Impact of Covid-19 on LTR: Business and Employee Performance Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on LTR, a housing association operating in Luton. It begins with an executive summary and introduction, then delves into the broad impact of the pandemic on organizations, including strategy, customers, and the workforce. The report specifically examines the effects on LTR, focusing on HR practices such as performance evaluation, recruitment, and training, as well as the challenges of remote working, infrastructure, and collaboration. Furthermore, it explores the impact on employee motivation, relationships, and the adoption of technology. Key issues at LTR are identified, including communication challenges, inadequate infrastructure, and declining employee morale, which are discussed in detail. Finally, the report provides recommendations to address these issues and improve the working life of employees. The report concludes with a summary of the key findings and references relevant sources.

Foundations of
Business Management

Table of Contents
Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Impact of Pandemic Covid-19 on organisations..............................................................................1
Key issue present at LTR.................................................................................................................4
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References:.......................................................................................................................................8
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................8

Executive Summary
Due to the emergence of Covid-19 pandemic life of people all over the world has been
changes drastically and that too of business firms. The way of doing business amidst of
pandemic is really a challenging task faced by the companies. Employees and management are
dealing with several issues while working and this report is based on key findings for several
issues dealt by the management and employees along with the recommendation to improve the
working life of people.

Introduction
Rapid changes in the market environment have changed the way business firms are
conducting their business activities. Change in the technology, buying habits of customer,
changes in desires and wants; taste and preferences; change in laws and practices all these factors
have contributed towards the changes in the operational activities of business. Evidently, recent
emergence of pandemic Covid-19 have posed a serious threat and challenges to the management
of business firm. People are shifting towards remote working, ways of communication is
changing, and people are shifting from physical meetings to the online (Belhadi and et. al.,
2021). Pandemic have a long term impact on the functioning of an organisation, communication,
HR practices, motivation, ways of working and adoption of technology. LTR is a housing
association operating in Luton with the aim of providing affordable housing to a local
community especially to a vulnerable individual. The report covers impact of Covid-19 on LTR,
its HR practices, use of technology and motivation level of employees at workplace.
Impact of Pandemic Covid-19 on organisations
Individuals and business firms are contributing largely towards breaking the chain of Covid-
19 virus through accepting the challenges posed by the pandemic. Organisation have shifted
towards the remote working, have become technology enabled and are more creative and
innovative than before. The outbreak of Pandemic is changing the way people live and conduct
business activities which will surely bring Fourth Industrial revolution with a more use of
technology, artificial intelligence and mobile supercomputing. There are several impacts
mentioned below: Impact on Strategy: Many business leaders were taking the crisis as an opportunity of
reinvention through establishing several cost structures, agile operation at business and
speed up digital transformation. However there is peak of crisis in some markets and in
some areas it is hitting back with a more intensity which have led to the revising and
redesigning the strategy to save the business and an economy as whole (Franchi, 2020). Impact on customer: Emergence of pandemic have changes the experiences of customer,
employees and a people in a community along with the change in the attitude and
behaviour. Customer demands and wants are changing drastically that has forced the
companies to re-evaluate how employees deliver exceptional customer experience, how
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customer centres can be used for better interaction and adoption of digital channels to
support the activities of business for its ongoing survival during and beyond the crisis. Impact on workforce: Human resource is the significant asset of a company and
companies are facing a big challenge to manage the people of company and business
operations when everyone is fighting with their own lives. It is essential for the
companies to make an agile strategies that keep the global economy viable and help
employees and their families financially amidst the crisis (Hailu, 2020).
Impact of COVID on HR practices
Human resource management takes care of the every aspect related with the people and
are becoming more tough and challenging with the outbreak of Covid-19. The HRM practices
have changed with the life of people around world which are discussed below:
 Performance Evaluation: Performance evaluation prior to the COVID was conducted to
appraise and provide recognition to the employee. However, amidst the pandemic
performance of the employee to check how much productive each individual is in an
organisation with the aim of reducing cost to the firm. Having less productive workforce
may lead to the loss of financial resources can affect the overall profitability and
performance level of a company.
 Recruitment and Selection activities: Recruitment and selection is one of the significant
HRM practices which look after acquiring a right talent with desired set of expertise and
knowledge. Companies are not taking new recruits and those are doing so are doing
virtually. For screening and selection process candidate is asked to go through a series of
tests and online interview with the interviewee. Additionally with the remote working
companies are seeking tech-savvy talented workforce.
 Training and development: Training to employees is essential to keep the employees
highly productive and competitive. With the pandemic, employees are receiving are not
getting appropriate learning and development programmes which have affected their
productivity, motivation and satisfaction level in the organisational culture (Murphy and
et. al., 2021). Use of Google Duo, Zoom meetings, skype have been adopted by the
company to be in touch with the workforce on a daily basis.
Impact of Covid-19 on remote working
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 Working hours: Almost every business is shifting their workforce to a more safe and
healthy place or assigning work from home as a backup plan to deal the emergencies and
ongoing of business activities. Employees are more flexible and productive when they
have their own comfort zone to work with the less dedicated working hours. Companies
are laying emphasis over quality and productive rather than just completing working
hours (Choi and et. al., 2021).
 Infrastructure: One of the biggest challenge in remote working is infrastructure required
to perform business activities from home, these can be laptops or desktop, power backup
devices, high speed internet, desk, ergonomic chair, printers, scanners etc. Companies are
investing a lot to ensure that each employee is well equipped to perform business
activities. Business firms are offering allowance for mobile bills, electricity and for high
speed internet.
 Collaboration: One of the significant challenges faced by the companies amidst Covid-
19 is collaboration with the employees working from remote areas. Developing and
implementing of good remote network strategy will enable the companies to encourage
employee participation such as video call and casual interaction over calls can help in
mitigate the sense of isolation and help companies in collecting work reports from the
employees. Meeting tools, chat application, data sharing software, and software for
attendance can reduce the chances of absenteeism.
Impact of Pandemic over motivation and technology
 Employee relationship: One of the powerful motivational factor at workplace in
stimulating the workforce is positive and healthy relationship with the superiors, peers
and subordinates (Morales-Narváez and Dincer, 2020). Employee spend 1/3rd of their
time at workplace and share any problem and issue with the superior and colleagues.
Remote working have separated many best working partners and employee feel low and
unconfident.
 Learning opportunities: Covid-19 have isolated many people at homes and brought-up
whole world into his knees. Employees at workplace were motivated to work through
several leaning opportunities due to the challenges and complexities faced by the
business while running day to day to operations. Additionally, recreational activities,
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appraisal and recognition programmes, rewards and bonus were among the several
factors for the employee motivation (Liu and et. al., 2019).
 Digitalisation and automation: Due to the emergence of Covid-19 many innovative
ideas have come forward related with the digital transformation. Organisation are
becoming more tech-savvy than before and are integrating Artificial Intelligence and use
of internet enabled technology. For instance, customer queries are resolved through calls,
e-mails, and meetings over digital platform, payment is done through net-banking and
other online payment banks, workers reports are submitted through reckoning software.
 Robotics, drones and Vehicle automation: Demand for a contactless interface between
the human have accelerated the use of robotics, drones and vehicle automation.
Organisations are using robots in their daily operational activities, drones for thee
surveillance and vehicle automation for the intense and wider supply chain.
Key issue present at LTR
LTR runs its business activities from central office site Luton town centre which is a
Housing Association providing housing solution to the local community with support and
assistance to the vulnerable communities. The business operation are divided into two units; one
of general purpose housing which is four housing blocks, each with a management office in
several locations across Luton and Supported Housing which has a transitional flats for 16-18
years old leaving care, two hostels for young mother aged 16-25 years and emergency hostel for
single young people of age group 16-25 (Ardito and et. al., 2019).
These units work with a support and good management of the different functional areas
such as finance team, facility maintenance team and customer services who are works closely to
deal with the issue of residents and use separate system to coordinate with the different
functional areas and keep track of the customer information.
The supported housing also operates with the help of different functional departments
like general housing but with an additional feature of personal coach who are assigned to each
resident with the aim of providing aid and support to the residents whenever in need.
Key issues faced by employees and management due to Covid-19 and Lockdown
 Growing frustration and dissatisfaction among the employees have forced the
management to come forward and resolve the issue to enhance productivity and
motivation level of employees. Way of communication adopted by LTR was one of the
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major concern for the employees of different departments. General administrator staff
had to dedicate most of their time to the emails for the formal and operational purpose, on
the other hand facilities management department too had a problem in addressing the
work order and repair request on time as they have to be stick for a long time to
communicate further with the customer and member of different department (Anwar and
Ali Shah, 2020). Use of email brings ambiguity at workplace as there could be chances of
misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the information. Additionally, Finance team
was facing the problem of delaying in responding to the emails by the members of the
other department leading to the poor management and productivity. Communication and
collaboration via online platform such as Zoom meetings is a cumbersome task and failed
to resolve the issues on time.
 Another major issue addressed by the staff of LTR is lack of or poor infrastructure
facilities to support the business activities from home. Many staff members are
complaining about poor network connectivity, use of their personal electronic devices to
have access to the documents and emails of LTR, and additionally use of personal mobile
phones and network with the other staff, for instance maintenance staff and personal
resident coach, for official purpose such as making calls or sending emails to the
customers, suppliers etc. which make them feel insecure with the personal and
confidential information. Use of landlines were restricted to only physical offices which
have compelled the employees to use their mobile phone to contact suppliers and
contractors, furthermore many have brought high speed broadband connection due to low
speed and poor network at their own expense to support the business operations.
 Lack of motivation and low morale of an employees at LTR have declined their
productivity and quality at work. Friendships and healthy relations at workplace adds
value to the working life and keep the employee motivated and committed. Due to the
remote working employee are interacting with their colleagues only for the meetings,
emails and work related task which have raised the concern of isolation and loneliness
especially for those who stay alone (Garbuio and Lin, 2019). Big concern at remote
working is regular monitoring of employees work which brings unhappiness and lack of
management trust over their valuable employees. Staff of customer service department
are addressing the issue of the customer over calls and e-emails which have made their
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work tiresome and uninteresting. All of these concern have increased stress level of
employees leading to anxiety and frustration.
Recommendations
There are key recommendations which can help LTR housing in addressing the issue of
employees which is arising due to pandemic Covid-19 and remote working.
 It is being observed that use of email at LTR is one of the poor method of communication
while checking the status of various projects and issue (Ikram and et. al., 2019). For an
internal communication between different functional department company can use the
software which should be more rapid, convenient and easy to use. Use of e-mail should
be restricted to only formal purpose as it is not possible for the internal team member to
always be pending to the e-mail box. Use of Microsoft team or Discord by LTR Housing
association as a communication and collaboration platform can resolve all the issues as
these software have sufficient integration with their already system Office Amp to assist
facility management team to avoid the duplication of information on two different
systems. One the advantage of these platforms are they cost effective, easy to adopt and
meets all the requirement of business.
Additionally, in order to avoid video conferencing for meeting, addressing issue, LTR may
opt for a development of an application which would resolves issue of management at finger
tips. Along with that LTR must have the option to use the telephone calls to address small
issue and meetings rather than complex process of videoconferencing.
 In order to deal with the issue faced by employee related with isolation and motivational
level of employees LTR housing association must design and develop various health and
wellness programmes to keep the morals of an employee high. Another recommendation
for increasing social interaction is virtual meetings on weekend with complete
participation of the employee supported by several activities. LTR can set the benchmark
and deadlines for the employees to be adopted while working from remote areas which
will keep the employee committed and loyal towards work. Doing so will not be required
to monitor the daily performance reports of the employees (Martinez and et. al., 2019).
Reports on weekly or monthly basis can help the companies to keep the reports of the
operational tasks such as projects and orders. Additionally LTR can use the cross
functional activities in order to bring change in the working profiles of the employees.
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For instance, administrative department should provide an opportunity to work in
customer services department and vice versa to avoid boredom and lack of interest from
the monotonous work. Employee tend be more creative and innovative where they are
asked to perform a task in some other functional department other than their field of
expertise.
Conclusion
From the above mentioned report it has been concluded that with a drastic change in an
environment life of the business also changes which is clearly supported by the evidence of
Covid-19 Pandemic. Way of doing business, interactions with the customer, supplier and
employees have changes drastically with the emergence of pandemic. However, strike of
pandemic will bring another technological revolution which will be more focused on the
artificial intelligence and tech-savvy business operations. Contactless interface have forced the
companies to redesign and redevelop the strategies that will help in making a progress in digital
transformation in the business operations.
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References:
Books and Journals
Anwar, M. and Ali Shah, S.Z., 2020. Managerial networking and business model innovation:
Empirical study of new ventures in an emerging economy. Journal of Small Business
& Entrepreneurship. 32(3). pp.265-286.
Ardito, L., and et. al., 2019. Towards Industry 4.0: Mapping digital technologies for supply chain
management-marketing integration. Business Process Management Journal.
Belhadi, A., and et. al., 2021. Manufacturing and service supply chain resilience to the COVID-
19 outbreak: Lessons learned from the automobile and airline
industries. Technological Forecasting and Social Change. 163. p.120447.
Choi, S.E., and et. al., 2021. Modeling the impact of COVID-19 on dental insurance coverage
and utilization. Journal of dental research. 100(1). pp.50-57.
Franchi, T., 2020. The impact of the Covid‐19 pandemic on current anatomy education and
future careers: A student’s perspective. Anatomical Sciences Education. 13(3).
pp.312-315.
Garbuio, M. and Lin, N., 2019. Artificial intelligence as a growth engine for health care startups:
Emerging business models. California Management Review. 61(2). pp.59-83.
Hailu, G., 2020. Economic thoughts on COVID‐19 for Canadian food processors. Canadian
Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie. 68(2). pp.163-
169.
Ikram, M., and et. al., 2019. Do environmental management systems help improve corporate
sustainable development? Evidence from manufacturing companies in
Pakistan. Journal of Cleaner Production. 226. pp.628-641.
Liu, Y., and et. al., 2019. Unpacking knowledge management practices in China: do institution,
national and organizational culture matter?. Journal of Knowledge Management.
Martinez, V., and et. al., 2019. Blockchain-driven customer order management. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Morales-Narváez, E. and Dincer, C., 2020. The impact of biosensing in a pandemic outbreak:
COVID-19. Biosensors and Bioelectronics. 163. p.112274.
Murphy, B., and et. al., 2021. Changes in Consumers’ Food Practices during the COVID-19
Lockdown, Implications for Diet Quality and the Food System: A Cross-Continental
Comparison. Nutrients. 13(1). p.20.
Online Source
[Online]Available through: <https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/whats-
next-for-remote-work-an-analysis-of-2000-tasks-800-jobs-and-nine-countries>./
[Online] Available through: <https://www.spacematrix.com/content/covid-19s-impact-remote-
working-how-adaptable-your-firm>./
[Online] Available through: <https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/covid-19-
impact-planned-layoffs-at-british-companies-surge-5-times-in-june-120080900808_1.html>./
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