BUSINESSES are taking a multi-pronged approach to ensure operations do not come to a standstill in an environment where Covid-19 is pervasive, industry experts said.

Most businesses have accepted that the coronavirus is here to stay and are planning their response strategies accordingly.

While they are finding ways to adapt to the pandemic, industry representative said the government should incentivise them to prioritise health safety and adherence to standard operating procedures.

Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers president Soh Thian Lai said many members have changed their way of doing business to suit the situation.

This includes adopting a permanent or semi-permanent work-from-home culture, he said.

“Businesses are also focusing on automation and digitalisation which will help them to operate core activities remotely where possible,” he said.

To steer the economy through the pandemic and after, the Finance Ministry has implemented a “6R” strategy to spur recovery while saving lives and livelihoods.

The six Rs are resolve, resilience, restart, recovery, revitalise, and reform. The strategy is mostly revolved around the government’s six economic stimulus packages worth RM580 billion.

The government has so far disbursed RM114.6 billion via a SME financing scheme, SME loans and wage subsidies, among others, to help business continuity.

It had also spent RM11.2 billion on initiatives to shore up the commodities and tourism sectors and on frontline workers’ allowances and Covid-related incentives.

The government deems the country to be at the reform stage, which will see the implementation of measures to bolster the people, businesses and the economy in the long run.

These measures will be outlined in the 12th Malaysia Plan to be tabled in Parliament on September 27.

New tech, re-training and legislative changes

Malaysian Employers Federation president, Syed Hussain Syed Husman agreed with Soh that technology will play a big role in adaptation to Covid-19 endemicity.

“2022 and the future will see the influence of new technologies  such as  data analytics and use of  social media in performing work.”

To that extent, Syed Hussain said companies must invest in the digitalisation of their operations. Employees, he said, will also need to be upskilled and reskilled in order to be relevant.

Given that most companies have been operating at a loss for the past 20 months due to rolling lockdowns, Syed Hussain said that businesses may even consider offering short term contracts for employees to reduce fixed costs.

“More openings may be available in the platform economy which has adopted a self-employed business model where the cost is kept to a minimum”

He added that as many businesses are allowing some employees to work from home and making others work on site, there is a need to the labour laws.

“The existing employment laws are too rigid and will not be able to support the current work arrangements.

“The new work systems require more flexibility in terms of hours of work, and how work is performed and delivered by the employee,” he said.

Incentivising employers to adapt

Malaysian Entrepreneurship Foundation chairman Nitesh Malani said businesses must be incentivised to pay heed to health safety.

“As a short-medium term strategy, the government must encourage and incentivise businesses to test the employees as frequently as possible,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“Implementation of SOPs like sanitisation and trying to adhere to all the relevant existing guidelines should be incentivised. All this should be done in the current budget.

“The current budget should stipulate a lot of benefits such as tax benefits and incentives to allow businesses to operate safely.”

Malani said expecting businesses to fork out money for testing on a weekly basis will incur a lot of cost and urged the government to consider subsidising this.

“This has created an incremental cost to manufacturers.

“If the government says it will subsidise the cost in terms of tax breaks and claimable amounts from Sosco, this will allow more employers to be careful and safe as they are still able to conduct business. This is a fair way of moving forward,” he said.

For the hospitality sector, Malani said the sector must have a plan to withstand another sudden closure, and reopen in stages.

In terms of work from home arrangements, Malani said not all sectors, especially those in retail and hospitality, can afford to do so.

Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) may not have the infrastructure needed for long term work from home arrangements, she added.

“They have no processes and systems in place compared to a multinational company or a government linked company.

“MNCs and GLSc have systems and the relevant know-how so their employees can work from home.

“They also have the financial capabilities to equip a large number of their employees to work from home, they will provide the relevant materials.”

Herd immunity

SME Association vice president Chin Chee Seong said many members prefer to let their employees work from home wherever possible.

“Depending on the nature of the job, we will try as much as possible to work from home until the infection rate drops or when the vaccination rate improves,” Chin said.

When the companies eventually decide to return to the office, Chin said tests will have to be conducted regularly to detect infections.

“If any of the workers are infected or infecting others, the whole company will have to close down, which incurs cost. This is where we have to take note and extra care.” – September 4, 2021.