The pandemic has forced the adoption of new ways of working. Organizations must re imagine their work and the role of offices in creating safe, productive, and enjoyable jobs and lives for employees.
Before the pandemic, the conventional wisdom had been that offices were critical to productivity, culture, and winning the war for talent. Companies competed intensely for prime office space in major urban centers around the world, and many focused on solutions that were seen to promote collaboration.
Before the corona virus hit, employees spent untold hours at the office talking with colleagues in the hallway or around the coffee machine. They discussed solutions to problems, provided advice, and served as sounding boards to their coworkers’ challenges. Occasionally, they shot the breeze and chatted about weekend plans. For the time being, this crisis is robbing them of those kinds of social interactions.
9 Future of Work Trends Post-COVID-19The health and safety of the workforce should be management’s top priority as it considers how to bring operations back to some semblance of normal. This is, of course, a moral, ethical and legal concern for all companies. And from a business perspective, safeguarding employees’ well-being is paramount because no plan to resume normal operations can succeed without them.
Work-At-Home After Covid-19Returning to the workplace could mean recalling furloughed employees, transitioning away from mandatory remote work or ramping back up toward full productivity regardless of where work is being performed. For many companies, it likely means a combination of all three. But as management teams develop strategies to get their businesses back on track, most will probably focus on getting employees who really need to be in the office or on the factory floor back into the building as soon as it is safe and practicable to do so.
What do employees need to manage this change?Without employee buy-in, even the best-crafted plans are likely to run into trouble. Management teams should lead with empathy and demonstrate an understanding that while all of their employees have experienced this crisis, they haven’t all experienced it the same way. Some employees may have conditions that increase their risk of serious COVID-19 infection and may be reluctant to return to the office. Others may be eager to leave remote work behind, but have care giving responsibilities that make it difficult or impossible for them to do so. Sensitivity to this reality is a must.
Companies of all sizes are under attack. Meanwhile, remote work has become a necessity for modern organizations looking to recruit talent and create business continuity plans. A good example of business continuity occurred in the spring of 2020, when organizations around the world sent hundreds of thousands of information workers to work from their home offices in response to the COVID19 (corona virus) outbreak.
