1. Optimize teleworking
In many companies, teleworking will continue to be the order of the day. Since the arrival of the Covid-19 epidemic on French soil, you have had, when possible, to ask your employees to telecommute. A situation that will continue to the extent that, despite the deconfinement, the government recommends that employers massively resort to this mode of work at least until the summer, in particular when the home-business journey involves the use of transport. in common. To help companies in which teleworking is not customary, the public authorities have published questions and answers in a document entitled “Telework and deconfinement”. It is therefore recalled that, given the exceptional circumstances, you, as an employer, can impose teleworking on your employees or, on the contrary, refuse them if their presence is essential for the proper functioning of the company. Likewise, it is up to you, if necessary, to distribute the days of teleworking and working in the company. But be careful, you must also ensure that your employees work in good conditions, that is to say make sure that they have the necessary equipment to carry out their missions, set their working hours to guarantee their right to rest and when disconnecting, have regular exchanges with them to avoid their isolation, etc. These are all elements that you can include in a charter or collective agreement to properly regulate teleworking in your company. And if the experience turns out to be positive, you may want to consider telecommuting on a sustainable basis. The opportunity, perhaps, to reduce workspaces and therefore your rent charges.
2.Adapt your partial activity plan
The partial activity plan implemented in companies is intended to evolve over time. The slowdown in economic activity and the obligation imposed on many businesses to close their doors have forced employers to resort massively to short-time working. If this is your case, you have had to define a partial activity plan specifying the number of employees affected and their working time over a period of several days or several weeks. A plan that aims to evolve over time, in particular following deconfinement. However, despite this deconfinement, you may have to keep all or part of your employees on partial unemployment. In this case, be aware that the rules implemented by the public authorities to strengthen this system (increase in the amount of the partial activity allowance, extension of eligible employees, etc.) have been maintained for the month of May. Also, you must continue to pay employees placed on short-time work compensation at least equal to 70% of their gross hourly remuneration. And, for this period, this compensation is fully reimbursed to you by the State up to a limit of € 31.98 per hour not worked. But from June, state participation is expected to decline, except for businesses that are not allowed to reopen. A measure that may weigh on your cash flow and which you must take into account when establishing your partial business plan for the coming weeks.
3. Focus on remote communications
Video conferencing tools may well continue to be widely used by businesses after the health crisis. Even though deconfinement began a few weeks ago, travel must still be restricted and it will be necessary to wait for the end of the epidemic to be able to bring several people together again in the same office. Not to mention the difficulties that persist in traveling abroad. To continue to interact with customers, wherever they are, in a user-friendly and practical manner, it is therefore necessary to use videoconferencing tools. Rather little used by VSEs and SMEs before the Covid-19 crisis, they have demonstrated their effectiveness by allowing millions of teleworking employees to continue working with their teams, but also with their customers. Sometimes offered for free (in a limited or trial version), like Zoom, Skype or Google Meet, or integrated into an office package, like Microsoft Teams (Office 365), they bring together several dozen participants who will be able to talk to each other, see each other, exchange comments and share documents via instant messaging. They are so efficient and user-friendly that they are expected to remain widely used by businesses long after this crisis is over.
4.Anticipate your future cash flow needs
If necessary, you can apply for a government guaranteed loan from your banker. Once your forecast and your dashboard have been updated, or an intermediate situation has been established, the accounting firm can decline your forecasts in terms of cash flow requirements. And if you haven’t already, or if your needs were initially undervalued, apply for a government guaranteed loan (a EMP) from your banker. It should be remembered that companies of all sizes, regardless of their legal form, can benefit from this state guarantee until December 31. These loans can represent up to 3 months of turnover. As for the repayment, it will be deferred for one year and the repayment period may range from 1 to 5 years. In practice, to obtain an EMP, you must apply for a loan from a bank, obtain the bank’s pre-approval, then send your request for a guarantee certificate to Bpifrance, via its platform. All you have to do is communicate this certificate to the bank so that they can pay you the loan. Of course, the firm is at your side to help you put together your file and complete your procedures. We can also verify that all your future cash needs are well covered, including in terms of WCR – working capital requirement -, the cash requirement financing your operating cycle, in particular the need resulting from the time lag that sometimes exists between date of customer payments and payment of suppliers. Indeed, in many cases, it is the resumption of activity that will generate cash flow requirements!
5. Motivate teams
Due to the health crisis, the objectives assigned to employees, in particular salespeople, will inevitably have to be reviewed. Like it or not, the Covid-19 crisis will have a big impact on corporate accounts. It is therefore strongly recommended to review the criteria for calculating the variable remuneration of your employees. Based on forecasts built before the crisis, the objectives cannot be achieved. Under these conditions, it seems difficult to re-motivate the troops, especially salespeople, whose role of conquest will be absolutely decisive in relaunching the activity of your company. You must therefore review the profit-sharing clauses of your employees, and re-set achievable objectives for them after carrying out your budget review.