March has concluded with the same level of confusion that the year began with. At this point in time, predictions for future markets and economic development have begun to change from what they were a few months ago. Some industries are experiencing record lows in terms of public interest due to regulations aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19. But then again, a pandemic is expected to shift priorities on a global scale. Some industries, however, are more booming than ever before.
Health and Wellness
Whenever there is an outbreak of a dangerous disease, we flock to the same path every time. The industries surrounding all that is health and wellness have become increasingly popular in the past few months. The threat of the novel coronavirus is pushing people towards taking advantage of health insurance policies, various sanitization products, more frequent healthcare routines, and even an interest in online home-based exercise plans. As expected, sales on fitness equipment and online courses have risen, making the home gym concept more of a trend than it was half a year ago.
Grocery & Food Delivery
Though this has been an everyday routine for many of us over the years, it’s now more in use than ever. Even those of us who enjoyed the daily lunch out, or the weekly shopping trip, are now forced to resort to grocery and food delivery services. With governments across the world opting for a lockdown system to somewhat contain the spread of COVID-19, being out and about anywhere is not a good idea. In fact, a large number of cases in Europe, the Americas, and Asia are due to large groups of people coming into contact with one another while shopping.
Delivery services, be it through E-commerce platforms or on specific shops, are in high demand. One could say that this is one industry that has been changed by the threat of a pandemic in terms of public value for a very long time.
Online Education
This has been most successful in European countries struggling to contain the outbreak. It’s important to note that online education has previously been perceived as largely ineffective compared to its classroom-based counterpart.
But recent events have proven that this isn’t always the case. In fact, the online approach to education is much simpler than that of the remote work model. It became apparent that students have more of an affinity towards remote learning than professionals do in regards to their work.
This has encouraged a wave of companies providing online training/education services to do all that they can to accelerate and optimize their product. E-learning platforms, time/productivity tracking software and conference call tools are part of the current changes in the education world.
Digital Entertainment
A highly expected outcome was the rising interest in digital entertainment channels. Depending on where you are, chances are you’re spending the majority of your time indoors, hopefully with the exception of necessities getting you out of the house.
It’s only natural that we look at our indoor entertainment to replace our extroverted and social need for interaction. As such, outlets like Netflix and HBO, as well as various niche entertainment systems and products have seen a rise in popularity. Though this does not apply to all tech in the entertainment world, it still stands to reason that movie streaming and video game platforms would become a constant presence in our COVID-19 daily lives.
Remote Work
This is perhaps the element that has seen the most growth over the past few months. Remote work differs from entertainment and delivery services in being vital to maintaining the status quo. However, the remote model is one of those solutions that we never needed as much as we do now. For a while, it has been an uncommon approach that a lot of companies avoided, or only a few chose to incorporate. With the spread of the COVID-19 disease, governments around the globe have been encouraging this model if possible. This also had an extremely positive impact on the continuity of business in many sectors. It’s a relief to see so many companies adapt to the situation, and continue their operations in a safer manner. Despite the difficulties, businesses are still recruiting, operating, and perhaps performing much more efficiently than before.
Our goal for the past few years was and remains to support HR professionals and recruitment agencies in easing their process. We chose to make Manatal a recruitment software that could be easily implemented and leveraged anywhere at any time. Our applicant tracking system was designed to make recruitment a largely automated and simplified process regardless of whether it’s in the office, or on a remote work model. We work with companies operating fully remotely or across numerous entities located in different countries. Manatal software is a cloud-based SaaS that remains available at any time from anywhere as long as you have internet access.
Click here to read more about our insights regarding recruitment in a COVID-19 world.