In
late April and early May, CSA Research partnered with the Academy of
International Language Services of Beijing Language and Culture
University and the Institute of Language Services, Hebei Normal
University for Nationalities to survey 135 language service
providers(LSPs) in China about their experience during the period when
COVID-19-related restrictions were in force and what has happened since
they were relaxed. “As the first country to have experienced stringent
limitations on movement, social activity, and work – as well as the
first to emerge from them – the experience of Chinese LSPs can give LSPs
elsewhere insight into what to expect as they go through the same
process,” says Arle Lommel, the senior analyst of CSA Research. The
initial results provide insight into how language companies around the
world can plan for their future.
As
has now happened almost everywhere, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a
substantial negative effect on most LSPs in China: 68% experienced a
decline in revenue. Interpreting-centric companies were hit particularly
hard – 80% reported a decrease. Although most respondents to our survey
of Chinese LSPs continue to report depressed revenues, we do see signs
of a rebound – the number of companies with decreased revenues has
dropped from two-thirds to approximately one-half, and 10% reported
higher than expected revenue. In addition, although conditions for
interpreting companies remain difficult, their rebound compared to their
performance during the period of restrictions is comparable to what
other LSPs have experienced. These numbers show light at the end of the
post-COVID tunnel.
A
major challenge for LSPs in China, as in other countries, has been how
to negotiate formal and informal restrictions on everyday activities.
Chinese companies have traditionally relied on a culture of long hours
in the office (a practice informally referred to as the “996” model:
working from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm, six days a week), but COVID-19 has
severely disrupted this model. As of May 1st, only 17% had brought all
of their workers back to the job, but 33% had yet to return any workers.
Of those that had begun the process, the average was that less than
half (45%) of the workers who had gone remote were in the office.
The
reasons why workers are not yet back are largely logistical: School
closures lead the list, followed by employee concerns about health and
differing provincial timelines in a tie for second place. Although our
survey did not ask about public transit, worries that buses and trains
might spread COVID-19, as they appear to have in New York City, have
left many individuals in large urban centers leery of traveling to work.
In addition, social distancing requirements are particularly difficult
to meet in offices with an open floor plan – 19% of Chinese LSPs in our
sample cite this as a challenge to bringing employees back, a number we
expect to rise as they push to increase on-site staffing.
These
challenges will not disappear. The recent second wave of COVID-19 in
some cities in China has shown attempts to bring staff back may be
premature and subject to reversal. But, more critically, will workers
feel safe and want to come back, even as concerns abate and widespread
interest in restoring economic activity rises?
In
Europe and the Americas, COVID-19 has accelerated a trend toward remote
work and even pushed governmental agencies in this direction. It is
leading to a shift to more reliance on cloud-based technologies, with
several TMS vendors reporting record utilization of their remote-work
platforms. As long as uncertainty about health and safety persist,
expensive real estate in city centers will seem like an unnecessary, and
possibly deadly, luxury. Workers who no longer face 90-minute commutes
on top of long days may not want to come back to the office or may
prefer to come in only for in-person meetings.
“Chinese
LSPs will feel similar pressure to change how they work. If they
discover that remote workers are as productive as those in a closely
controlled office setting, they too may embrace the change and benefit
from decreased costs and greater flexibility,” says Dr. Meng Yongye, the
director of the Institute of Language Services, Hebei Normal University
for Nationalities. Workers with newfound flexibility may demand change.
Just as pandemics in the Medieval era resulted in major changes in
labor markets in Europe, so too may COVID-19 result in substantial and
long-lasting changes in how LSPs and other companies deliver their
services. Those LSPs that can adjust the most quickly to these new
realities will be better positioned to take advantage of the rebound as
restrictions are eased and grow in the post-COVID-19 future.
Professor
Wang Lifei, the chief expert of the Academy of International Language
Services of Beijing Language and Culture University, comments that
according to this survey, what Chinese LSPs experienced before and are
exercising now are shared worldwide, providing in-time enlightenments
for global LSPs to realize their better future after COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: Chinese LSPs Show the Way into the Post-COVID-19 Future
https://tech.china.com/xinwen/2020/0604/532686.html
