Mercer, a firm consulting company, performed a snapshot survey on Japanese firms’ responses to the novel coronavirus in the period between February 27 and March 4, joined by 579 firms.
The survey results find that 91% of the total suspend or postpone non-essential domestic and overseas business trips. Also, suspension or postponement of corporate training (71%), suspension or postponement of corporate social gathering (59%) and suspension or postponement of recruiting events (39%) are seen.
The survey results show working styles are changing: 82% of firms performing remote-working or home-working, 52% of those changing to online corporate conference, 39% of those changing to online external conference or 27% of those changing to online corporate training.
Meanwhile, 18% of the total cannot perform remote-working or home-working because of short of infrastructures, no rule or not suitable for business contents.
Regarding the future influences from the novel coronavirus, 61% say ‘unclear’ so far. 10% has already started reviewing FY2020 budget or business plans, and 16% answered it is highly possible to review the future business plans.
