Coronavirus, COVID-19, these are the latest buzzwords doing the rounds globally, no matter what industry you belong to or where in the world you are – that’s the theme of the moment.
The onset of this pandemic that is now creating havoc in the lives of people worldwide is going to transform not only how we live, but also how we work and how we set future goals.
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While even Governing in the time of the Coronavirus has undergone a major shift, with over 100 countries and districts worldwide being forced into partial or total lockdown, a key question for businesses to now ask themselves revolves around – the post pandemic work culture.
Are we prepared for the post-pandemic working world?
Two major factors that countries and companies worldwide are now focusing on are: resilience and preparedness.
Priorities have shifted for team leaders today given the current situation.
Here’s what the post pandemic working world would look like given the recent changes that businesses are undergoing:
More Flexibility and Remote Work Options
One of the best things about being in certain industries like tech or tech services is the ability to work from anywhere. Collaboration tools, virtual meeting platforms, chat platforms and document sharing tools allow global teams to coordinate and navigate their tasks seamlessly.
While certain industries have been attuned to the whole remote work culture process with several leading tech companies allowing even key senior positions to work remote or work from home on a regular basis, the current pandemic has opened up a startling reality – not everyone was ready to move to a remote work environment.
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While several companies struggled initially to set up the right tools and practices to enable their global teams to work from home seamlessly, with several even offering a set monetary incentive to enable employees to set up their own work from home infrastructure, the key learning we can all come away with is that remote work and flexibility will soon become the new norm. Now that more and more companies are forced into this routine, the post pandemic world will be ready for employees to work from home or anywhere in more situations and cases, with business leaders and team leaders being more open to the idea.
Proper Distribution of Tasks
With the onset of the pandemic, companies who were ill-prepared to allow employees to work from home also faced another challenge – realizing that important or business critical tasks usually almost always fell on the hands of certain specific people.
If there’s one thing a leadership team should learn from the changing times due to the coronavirus effect is that – it is definitely time to re-align key tasks in such a way so as to ensure that every task has more than one shadow employee who is updated enough and capable enough of handling a situation in times of urgency.
As they say, the show must go on, so stopping crucial business activities only because they were people-dependent on one or two people is not something companies should strive for. Proper business continuity after all helps ensure that people’s livelihoods are saved and fewer layoffs occur.
Move to the Cloud, Focus on Digital Transformation
Digital transformation is an important element for more companies around the world to focus on. Ensuring that data, important files, crucial information are ALWAYS available with proper secure access via cloud platforms will become a priority for business leaders. Given the gradual increase in coronavirus patients worldwide, more and more companies realized the importance of having access to a cloud system that allows for seamless business continuity at a time when physically visiting the office might not be possible due to ill-health or a lockdown.
Refocused planning on day to day activities
Twitter, LinkedIn have been inundated with posts and updates from global employees about how this forced work from home has allowed them to rethink how they plan their day, with many talking about how they have re-utilized their commute time to focus on more productive tasks. I for one am saving over 2 hours of daily travel time while working from home through this pandemic! This has and will open up a new avenue for employees to rethink how they structure and plan their days, keeping an end goal or objective in mind.
How do you think the post pandemic working world would look once things get better (and hopefully, they’ll get better soon!). Let us know!
P.S: Don’t forget to wash your hands!