| Peer-Reviewed

Impact of COVID-19 on Big and Small Tech Companies

Received: 23 January 2021    Accepted: 3 February 2021    Published: 23 April 2021
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Abstract

During the pandemic, companies were collapsing like sand. The fate of different industries slipped despite the efforts of owners and CEO. The Tech industry was one of the few that thrived during the pandemic as every business was gradually moving on to the digital platform. Even in the tech industry, only the big companies that already had a massive footprint before the pandemic, like Apple, Google, Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon, bloomed. Many medium-sized and small-sized tech organizations also struggled during the pandemic. The tech companies associated with the travel and tourism industry like Uber, Airbnb, Trip Advisor, etc. couldn’t find any customers due to lockdown. This created an imbalance in different sectors like recruitment, employee retention, etc. Due to this imbalance and lack of cash flow, small tech companies were laying off jobs to survive while the big tech giants were recruiting more employees to thrive. This imbalance in recruitment and lay off created fear of losing or retaining a job in many tech employees whether they were skilled professionals or fresh graduates. This paper focuses on and compares these effects on big tech companies and small tech companies. This paper also suggests steps and solutions for small tech companies to maintain themselves during the pandemic and regain their market position after the new normal.

Published in Journal of Human Resource Management (Volume 9, Issue 2)
DOI 10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11
Page(s) 33-38
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Fate, Recruitment, Lay off, Cash Flow

References
[1] Sharma, Rajaei K., Bhupinder Sharma, and Harriet L. Ogle. "The recruitment legacy of COVID-19." BJPsych Bulletin 44.4 (2020): 177-177.
[2] Holt-White, Erica, and Rebecca Montacute. "COVID-19 and social mobility impact brief# 5. Graduate recruitment and access to the workplace." (2020).
[3] Noor, Zaha, et al. "Impact of Rewards System on Employee Motivation: A Study of a Manufacturing Firm in Oman." International Journal of Business and Management Future 4.2 (2020): 6-16.
[4] Rathore, Udayan, and Shantanu Khanna. "From Slowdown to Lockdown: Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis on Small Firms in India." Available at SSRN 3615339 (2020).
[5] “Apple Park | Design, History, Layout.” AppleInsider, 9 Dec. 2020, appleinsider.com/inside/apple-park. unpublished.
[6] “Why Small Tech Companies Are Struggling during COVID-19 Digital Economy Boom.” Mercy Corps, 17 July 2020, www.mercycorps.org/blog/tech-companies-COVID-19-digital-economy. unpublished.
[7] Stephany, Fabian. “Pandemic-Proof Jobs? IT Freelancers in High Demand, Other Online Workers Facing Cuts.” The ILabour Project, Fabian Stephany, 19 May 2020, ilabour.oii.ox.ac.uk/pandemic-proof-jobs. unpublished.
[8] “How to Keep Your Team Motivated, Remotely.” Harvard Business Review, 14 Aug. 2020, hbr.org/2020/04/how-to-keep-your-team-motivated-remotely. unpublished.
[9] Reynolds, Brie Weiler. “159% Increase in Remote Work Since 2005: FlexJobs & Global Workplace Analytics Report.” FlexJobs Job Search Tips and Blog, 22 Dec. 2020, www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-gwa-report-remote-growth. unpublished.
[10] Buchwald, Elisabeth. “A Record Number of Americans Are Losing Their Jobs — but Walmart, Amazon, Ace Hardware and Others Are Hiring to Fill 604,000 Openings amid Coronavirus Demand.” MarketWatch, 18 Apr. 2020, www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-is-hiring-100000-workers-7-eleven-will-hire-up-to-20000-here-are-the-sectors-adding-jobs-amid-coronavirus-2020-03-20. unpublished.
[11] Neufeld, Dorothy. “Visualizing Layoffs at Prominent Startups Triggered by COVID-19.” Visual Capitalist, 2 June 2020, www.visualcapitalist.com/layoffs-prominent-startups-covid-19. unpublished.
[12] CB Insights. “Big Tech’s Investments Surge Amid The Pandemic. Here’s Where They’re Placing Bets.” CB Insights Research, 9 Sept. 2020, www.cbinsights.com/research/famga-investment-covid-19. unpublished.
[13] Paul, Kari, and Dominic Rushe. “Tech Giants’ Shares Soar as Companies Benefit from Covid-19 Pandemic.” The Guardian, 31 July 2020, www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jul/30/amazon-apple-facebook-google-profits-earnings. unpublished.
[14] Cellan-Jones, Rory. “Tech Tent: Big Tech and the Future of Work.” BBC News, 4 Sept. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/technology-54028998. unpublished.
[15] Hancock, Bryan, and Bill Schaninger. “HR Says Talent Is Crucial for Performance—and the Pandemic Proves It.” McKinsey & Company, 27 July 2020, www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/hr-says-talent-is-crucial-for-performance-and-the-pandemic-proves-it#. unpublished.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Johan Van Rooyen, Aman Pathak. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on Big and Small Tech Companies. Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(2), 33-38. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11

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    ACS Style

    Johan Van Rooyen; Aman Pathak. Impact of COVID-19 on Big and Small Tech Companies. J. Hum. Resour. Manag. 2021, 9(2), 33-38. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11

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    AMA Style

    Johan Van Rooyen, Aman Pathak. Impact of COVID-19 on Big and Small Tech Companies. J Hum Resour Manag. 2021;9(2):33-38. doi: 10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11,
      author = {Johan Van Rooyen and Aman Pathak},
      title = {Impact of COVID-19 on Big and Small Tech Companies},
      journal = {Journal of Human Resource Management},
      volume = {9},
      number = {2},
      pages = {33-38},
      doi = {10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20210902.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.jhrm.20210902.11},
      abstract = {During the pandemic, companies were collapsing like sand. The fate of different industries slipped despite the efforts of owners and CEO. The Tech industry was one of the few that thrived during the pandemic as every business was gradually moving on to the digital platform. Even in the tech industry, only the big companies that already had a massive footprint before the pandemic, like Apple, Google, Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon, bloomed. Many medium-sized and small-sized tech organizations also struggled during the pandemic. The tech companies associated with the travel and tourism industry like Uber, Airbnb, Trip Advisor, etc. couldn’t find any customers due to lockdown. This created an imbalance in different sectors like recruitment, employee retention, etc. Due to this imbalance and lack of cash flow, small tech companies were laying off jobs to survive while the big tech giants were recruiting more employees to thrive. This imbalance in recruitment and lay off created fear of losing or retaining a job in many tech employees whether they were skilled professionals or fresh graduates. This paper focuses on and compares these effects on big tech companies and small tech companies. This paper also suggests steps and solutions for small tech companies to maintain themselves during the pandemic and regain their market position after the new normal.},
     year = {2021}
    }
    

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Author Information
  • Department of Business and Management, Faculty of George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology, Webster University, Hua Hin, Thailand

  • Department of Computer Science, Faculty of George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology, Webster University, Bangkok, Thailand

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