Coronavirus has shaped a new future for work

The global pandemic has spread all over the world. The COVID-19 has affected the lives of many. Industries have not taken it easy either. Many have lost their jobs, while others had to adjust to the completely new lifestyle and completely new reality they work up one day. The pandemic is not over yet, but some restrictions have been lifted.

Many industries and sectors are coming back to a lifetime by time. We do not know for sure when life gets back to normal, but one thing is for sure. The working culture will have a long term effect from the COVID pandemic and should be changed forever.

Where and what kind of changes should we expect from?

Working Flexibility

According to some research, even before the global pandemic around 5 million people all over the world have been working remotely, or partially remotely, from home. The Salesforce has presented the new research stating that already 61% of the total workforce is working from home at this stage. The interesting fact is that almost 53% of those people work from home due to COVID-19 pandemic.

No one could have predicted the result of the home working experience. According to the research, employees have become much more productive and more enthusiastic about their work. This might be justified by the fact that they have been working in a comfortable environment. Moreover, the financial factor is a big deal. While there is no need to pay for transportation as well as for eating outside.

Now the experience has shown that people can be very productive while working from home and that the work can actually be flexible. So maybe in the future, we should say goodbye to the standard working schedule and the offices. Some big companies like Twitter announced that their employees will continue working remotely even after the pandemic. Not forever of course, but permanently. Barclays and Morgan Stanley have already implemented the same practice.

"It's obvious at this stage that remote working will be viewed with entirely new importance post-COVID-19," said Ben Rogers, president of platform and technology clients at the National Research Group (NRG). "Investments in platforms and technology will need to be made to maximise efficiency in this new paradigm.”

This, of course, does not mean that we will never get back to the office, but at least not for another couple of months.

P2P Meetings

The global pandemic has definitely affected the business industry a lot. Some of the major business meetings and trips have been replaced with the Zoom conference call.s actually this is another great startup that showed up and developed a lot due to and during the pandemic.

Not only business meetings, but the lessons and the lectures have also been conducted via Zoom. perhaps if not the pandemic and the lockdown people would have never known about the application and the service.

Due to the traveling restrictions, especially overseas business meetings are postponed for an uncertain period of time. This means that many new innovations and startups just like Zoom should pop up and become the new trend. Face to face meetings will not be forgotten, yet the priority for some time at least will be given to the online conferences and meetings. Some startups and event companies even came up with the virtual team building platforms, in order to make employees feel connected and experience some type of communication.

Cross-industry talent exchange

Many people have lost their jobs and have been left without any financial assistance. In order to avoid any losses and people in need, some of the companies came up with the idea of sharing employees. This mainly concerns the logistics companies.

While this has been the first practice, the technique and the overall experience should be implemented as cross talent exchange practice into the working environment.

“As leaders," said Ravin Jesuthasan, Tracey Malcolm and Susan Cantrell in HBR, "we must all ask ourselves: How can we tap into the broader ecosystem of talent to build the resilience of both organisations and people during these challenging times?” The answer? “One innovative response is to develop a cross-industry talent exchange.” Why is this beneficial? It helps avoid “the frictional and reputational costs associated with letting people go while supporting workers in developing new skills and networks.”

Survival of the fittest

The Darwinian term came up at hand this time. The tiring times have come to everyone and while none of us had a guideline of how to behave in a very critical situation, we have to adjust ourselves. The innovations and agile systems are one of the best tools to survive the crisis.

Relatively small companies and the ones with relatively lower costs are the ones that have adapted to the situation more quickly and easier. Or on the other hand, the companies which previously had the online services or added the online service later lost the least.

Be that as it may, it's not all fate and unhappiness for organisations with physical areas or items. A valid example: distillers that have turned from making spirits to hand sanitiser. Or then again, clothing companies presently set veils to meet the expectations of clients. As for the physical venues transferring to the online spaces, the gym can be a vivid example. The online private sessions or gym classes have gained a lot of popularity in a very short period of time.

Quality over quantity

This is another thing that will be overlooked and reviewed sooner or later. So far the employees have to share their screens or their reports with their employers in order to track their working process. This might be stressful, as constant monitoring might actually cause a huge drawback at some time.

On the other side, it is a great opportunity to give the employees freedom and grant them the feeling of their personal responsibility. Also, true leaders should be the people who can motivate and encourage their team members during these times via encouraging ownership over their personal tasks or products.

Mental and physical health

Not once it was proved that the health and well-being is and should be the top priority. Though, not many employees and employers have paid much attention to this factor. Especially now, when we all need some time and assistance to recover from the pandemic and the stress, the employers must dedicate enough time to the mental state of their employees.

The next thing which will definitely be changed is the insurance package, which has to have the therapist visits covered in the package.

Sanitising and tracking the health of the employees is a must. Many companies, like Starbucks, are messing the temperature of the employees at the entrance in this way avoiding the spread of the virus. Many other companies use gloves and different sanitary tools, in order to prevent further spread of the virus and primarily physical contact.

In the UK the topic of “immunity passports” is being discussed actively. If the government decides to issue immunity passports, citizens will be obliged to take the passports and test for the coronavirus. The ones who have anti-bodies for coronavirus will have the stamp in the passports, as well as the ones who have overcome the virus.

This is the new reality which we have to cope with. Do we like it or not? Well, we will get used to it.