📘 From Zero to One - A Startup Guide

Within the collaboration of GEPRA and Blue Ocean, Another book has been released for business literature lovers.

We receive a lot of information every day, we express emotions and we form impressions. In the information age, at first glance, managing this process and attracting public attention is a difficult task, but not for strategic communications specialists.

7 მაისს, ნუცა სუბელიანიმა, ჯეპრას უფროსმა კონსულტანტმა გამართა ვებინარი თემაზე: კომუნიკაციების მართვა კრიზისის დროს და 13 წესი, რომელიც კომპანიამ უნდა გაითვალისწინოს კრიზისულ პერიოდში.

On May 7, Gepra's senior consultant, Nino Subeliani held webinar on the topic: Communication management in times of crisis and 13 rules, that a company should follow in crisis.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, many companies have to fire employees.

It is not expedient or reasonable to dismiss staff in this period of crisis, and lose a skilled workforce, Medea Tabatadze, manager of the Insource consulting company, said.

Companies letting off staff will face difficulties in hiring new staff in the post-crisis period, and the process will be more expensive compared to the pre-crisis period, she noted. 

Some companies, all over the world, including in Georgia, have decided to fire employees to cut expenditures. International experience suggests that this approach in a crisis is unjustified, Medea Tabatadze said.  

Despite the fact that the world is facing an unprecedented crisis, and nobody knows how to maintain both healthcare and economic sustainability, but maintaining staff is the most efficient method, anyway. The point is that in the post-crisis period, it will be very difficult to hire new staff or regain the previous one, the Insource manager explained. 

“Economists and management experts say that during times of crisis, companies should not lose knowledge, because two key directions were stressed: technology, and people. Technology means that many components will be digitized, but this process requires a lot of experience and human resources. 

They were saying every business will be digitized, but nobody details the scale of digitization and mechanisms. I think, at this stage, there are no preconditions in Georgia for everything being digitized. Anyway, this human knowledge and experience will be necessary”, Medea Tabatadze pointed out.  

If companies have no resources to pay their salaries, there are various models for maintaining personnel and management should apply these models, she noted. 

If the company decides to dismiss staff, it will lose face, and it will face difficulties returning furloughed personnel in the post-crisis period, and the process will be much more expensive, Tabatadze noted. 

“In our country, nobody calculates how much economic value one employee can create for a company, or what kind of expenditures a company will bear by dismissing one employee, while this part is counted. 

It will be more difficult and expensive to hire employees during a time of peace, than in the pre-crisis period, because social responsibility is ignored as they sack employees. 

When the crisis is over, everybody tries to bring on the best staff, and the so-called war for the best staff will start. After this crisis, I believe that employees fired in this crisis period will become sought-after on the market in the aftermath. 

Previously, we were suggested to make investments in either technology or people, but now the business needs both of them. As for postponement, there are many models on how to maintain the workforce in a time of crisis”, Tabatadze said.  

Click here to see more from the interview.

Senior Consultant Soso Galumashvili talks about advantages and disadvantages of working from home with FM Coach. 

Read more here.

Kakha Magradze, Senior Partner of Gepra, discussed Social Responsibility in the Age of Coronavirus.

Watch the video here.

We are all dealing with the uncertainty of these times, and the situation seems to change day-by-day. It is now important for us to maintain a consistent focus on our top priorities – our people, partners and our clients.

From the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Gepra has concentrated on ensuring the safety of our colleagues by switching to remote operation, while at the same time maintaining business continuity and our exceptional levels of service to our clients.

We maintain optimism against the background of a sense of reality, we help our clients to strengthen internal, external communication and developing anti-crisis plans, because right now it is important to communicate correctly and effectively with stakeholders. We continue to work with our partners and thus strengthen each other and maintain the status of a reliable partner.

I am encouraged by the resilience of our people and our clients in this trying time. We will be able to overcome the pandemic and get back to our usual rhythm, I know, we will all continue to support and take care of each other as we navigate this together.

Ekaterine Zhvania

Gepra's senior consultants attended the Leadership and Supervision workshop delivered by international expert of HICD 2020.