Rising employee numbers and positive developments
The first five months of the 2020 financial year have created a solid foundation for the current year. The target market in the public service sector, which already generated 90% of virtual7 GmbH’s revenue in the previous year, continued to prove sustainably profitable. Due to the strict hygiene requirements and restrictions imposed nationwide in March, virtual7 was forced to send its employees to work from home. With the exception of a few who had to be on site with customers, all projects were able to continue as usual. The goal of organic growth was therefore achieved. A total of eight new employees were hired in the period from January to May. Six of these were trained during the nationwide lockdown.
Design of the onboarding process
However, in some areas, there was no way around finding new solutions for the unprecedented situation. The onboarding of new employees now had to be organized in compliance with safety distances and hygiene regulations or even entirely from home. Despite this exceptional situation, solutions were quickly found. Working from home is an integral part of the work processes for most employees anyway and nothing unusual. Nevertheless, the induction of the new employees had to run as smoothly as possible. All logistical and technical scenarios had to be checked and run through first. With success: after a short time, it became clear that the planning was working and the new arrivals could be successfully integrated into the existing team. Some of the new hires were recruited after March 1, 2020, an important date on which the effects of the global pandemic in Germany and at the Romanian site became clear. Due to the distance to the other locations in Germany alone, it was already common practice to hold meetings via video call instead of in meeting rooms before the outbreak of the pandemic.
Project work from the home office
As work at the customer’s premises can only take place to a limited extent, some trips have been canceled completely. However, most project work can be continued from the home office. It remains to be seen how the current year will develop overall and what changes will emerge on the customer side. This situation represents uncharted territory for them in particular. It will only be possible to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been ongoing since March, on the basis of sales in the coming months.
