Set-Aside Alert survey results:

Surveys show small vendors' COVID19 fears

      The good news is that fewer small business federal contractors appear to be "very concerned" about the coronavirus pandemic negatively affecting their federal work, in comparison to how they felt in late March to early April, according to Set-Aside Alert’s exclusive surveys.

      In the earlier survey, which had 372 respondents, 42% reported being "very concerned" about maintaining federal contracting operations during the pandemic. In the follow-up survey, which was completed on July 10 and had 181 respondents, 32% reported feeling "very concerned."

      That suggests that actions taken by federal agencies, including allowing increased teleworking, authorizing forgivable loans for reimbursing employee salaries, etc. may have mitigated to some degree the difficulties of federal contracting during the coronavirus outbreak.

      For example, more of the workplaces are engaged in teleworking than before: 41% of the respondents in the more recent survey said more than half of their employees are teleworking, compared to 34% reporting the same amount of teleworking in the earlier survey.

      Also, only 16% reported receiving a stop-work order in the more recent survey vs. 22% reporting the same in the earlier survey.

      Even so, the baseline level of concern about carrying on federal work during the pandemic appears to be fairly substantial and may be growing. In the earlier survey in late March and early April, 25% of small business federal contracting respondents reported they were "concerned." As of July 10, the number jumped to 52% reporting they are "concerned" about the coronavirus infections affecting their work.

      What are they worried about? One fear may be about employees becoming infected, with 22.7% in the recent survey reporting that their employees have been diagnosed with, or potentially exposed to, COVID-19. In the earlier survey, 16.5% reported employees diagnosed with, or exposed to, COVID-19.

      Another might be concern about not being able to reimburse employees for unpaid work: 22% reported that worry recently vs. 15% in the earlier survey.

      Yet another change that might be raising anxiety is that only 21% anticipated requesting an Equitable Adjustment in the recent survey, while 52% had that anticipation in the earlier survey.

More information:
For full survey results: covid19followupsurvey.pdf
For earlier survey results, see: April 10, 2020 issue of Set-Aside Alert

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