Executive Summary
The current situation posed by COVID-19 has forced some companies to advise their employees to work from home. Most of the work done is therefore managed virtually with online meetings being the order of the day. The adoption of this method by company management exposes some of the weaknesses of these companies to several risks.
Nevertheless, few opportunities such as an increase in online marketing have equally risen. Directors have also devised new methods of supervising their staff, they achieve this by having an insight into the prevailing risk factors that the pandemic may cause to their routine operations (Frigo and Anderson, 2014). This paper focuses on the challenges, opportunities, risks, and mitigation measures that a company should integrate to achieve their goals.
Important Risk Factors that could Prevent Employers from achieving their Goals
Risk factors such as security and fraud in a company prevent an employer from achieving their goals, as identified in the interviews covered, there setbacks in a company that relies on online services (Frigo and Anderson, 2014). Network protection for secure communication were cited as widespread problems in modern companies. Moreover, there are financial risk factors brought by emergencies like the current COVID-19 pandemic.
The employees work virtually from home, this poses challenges that hamper gross profit that a company makes in relation to the previous normal conditions before COVID-19 pandemic. Such incidences have seen companies retrenching some employees while others get a total shut down.
Risks such as massive loss of assets and accumulation of debts and low productivity of the staff are therefore, common problems. Finally, operational risk forms part of current businesses facing the challenges as a result of COVID-19 (Fragnière, and Sullivan, 2006). Managers find it hard to supervise workers who do their jobs from home. Some of the workers require strict supervision which may not easily be done by administrators in a setting such as working from home.
Risk Mitigation Plans
These are steps that help managers to reduce the extent to which a particular risk affects the organization output. Security and fraud risk can be well addressed by business administration by first identifying the targets (Fragnière, and Sullivan, 2006). For effective mitigation measures, computer network and other IT assets security can be protected by applying strong security protocols (Sadgrove, 2016). Besides, there’s need to train the staff on the basic operations of the computer network of a company.
On the other hand, stressing on the necessity to install an antivirus that prevents malware infections to computers is a crucial aspect. Risk mitigation plans of a company such as securing the computers with passwords and anti-hackers’ software are therefore fundamental for a company (Berry and Berry, 2010). Through proper implementation of Business Continuity Programs, threat and risks such as security and fraud have been successfully instigated in some of the companies (Fragnière, and Sullivan, 2006). In equal measure, administrators and staff should identify the loopholes to prevent occurrences s of such risk.
Due to the COVID-19, working from home has been adopted by many companies. With a dramatic increase in the number of social media users, several incidences of cyberbullying and crimes have been reported. Preventing possible occurrences is the most formidable way to achieve secure operations in a firm, which in turn promotes the productivity of the business.
Reference List
Berry, C.T., and Berry, R.L., (2018). An initial assessment of small business risk management approaches for cybersecurity threats. International Journal of Business Continuity and Risk Management, 8(1), pp.1-10.
Fragnière, E. and Sullivan, G, (2006). Risk management: safeguarding company assets. George Sullivan.
Frigo, M.L., and Anderson, R.J. (2014) ‘Risk management frameworks: adapt, don’t adopt: here’s a primer on how to use two well-known approaches’, Strategic Finance, 95(7), 49+. Web.
Frigo, M. L., and Anderson, R. J., (2011). Strategic risk management: a foundation for improving enterprise risk management and governance. Journal of Corporate Accounting & Finance, 22(3), pp.81-88.
Sadgrove, K., 2016. The complete guide to business risk management. Routledge.