Currently, every organization is wondering: how long will it take for this novel coronavirus or Covid-19 to subside for work and economy and when will it return to normal? There’s a question that corporate leaders need to ask: what will be the new ways of work due to COVID-19? Before moving ahead, let’s check out some areas where covid-19 has a more significant impact.
Here’re some areas where Covid-19 will impact the most.
The Organization
The Covid-19 outbreak has forced organizations to embrace a mobile way of working. Technology enables everyone to work anywhere, anytime. Now the reality is organizations are currently experiencing a major decline; for instance, many software development companies fall off in their products and custom software development services. Business leaders are now raising questions about expensive workplaces which stand locked and silent.
The Real Estate
Prior to the novel coronavirus, real estate fundamentals were strong in leasing activity, strong leverage ratios, and amount of available capital. Now, developers and investors will have to reconsider the design, purpose, and sustainability of buildings. Pandemics can become more frequent due to various reasons like climate change if it is not taken seriously immediately. The real estate sector has a severe impact on any of these changes.
Now, the question arises what would be the new normal for businesses? This article presents eight ways that we believe are likely to happen post-COVID-19:
8 Ways That Our Future of Work May Change Due to Covid-19
No. 1: Regular 9-to-5 office hours will be a thing of the past.
The coronavirus pandemic will have a last impact on the future of work, especially in the standard office working hours. Perhaps, one of the most prominent cultural shifts in the workplace. The office experience probably would not remain as it was before Covid-19. Trust and respect would be the new norm. As many people have already been successfully working from home, it will be harder for employers to deny flexibility around work hours and work settings.
Pro Tip: To develop a balance between work and personal time, managers and employees should work closely together. Also, organizations must ensure that their employees are not pressured to respond to emails all day.
No. 2: The offices will exist.
This coronavirus pandemic has completely changed the “normal workspace”. Before this situation, it was assumed that offices played a critical role in productivity and culture. However, the estimate suggests that April 2020, 62% of employed Americans worked at home during that critical period, compared with around 25% a couple of years ago. But this pandemic has surprised us how quickly and effectively technologies for video conferencing and other forms of digital collaboration were adopted. Undeniably, the consequences have been better than imagined.
One thing we know for sure: the whole world would not work from home after post-covid-19. The offices will exist although they will look different in terms of spacious cubicles or other partitions because of maintaining social distancing and health reasons. These changes may be temporary until there is a vaccine.
No. 3: Employee well-being also matters.
Here’s the deal: It should come as no surprise that the current pandemic has affected and will continue to affect the mental health and well-being of employees. With data by researchers, 45% of adults report that stress and anxiety related to covid-19 have had a major negative effect on their mental health. These figures will be likely to grow; therefore, organizations should start taking steps to educate their employees on this topic. It’s up to organizations to identify issues and implement wellness programs for their employees. This way, it helps employees to rejuvenate and get high performance in their work.
No. 4: Methods of feedback will dramatically change.
How do an organization lead and inspire their employees amid this pandemic that creates anxiety and uncertainty all around? Undeniably, this crisis has changed loads of things in our lives. On the latter Covid-19, the feedback in which we can see dramatic changes.
It completely tore down the past methods adopted by companies and pushed management to use alternative means of providing feedback to employees.
After emerging needs for employees’ trust, company culture tends to bend towards flexibility. According to the study, around 75% of millennials believe that work from home or work remotely policy is essential.
Thus, depending upon instant messaging and emails are quick and consistent. Managers should plan for face-to-face meetings on a weekly, monthly, or even bi-weekly basis to review projects. It also helps organizations to ensure employees are getting the support as what they deeply crave and need to continue growing.
No. 5: More video calls & less in-person meetings
In the corporate world, communication is essential, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic. Video conferencing has become more popular more than ever in the current times. For example, if you work in a sales-oriented job, then in-person contact is essential. However, frequent business traveling must be replaced by video conference calls because of the public health perspective. Companies will also have to take care of their employees as well as clients. It also does not mean business travel will not exist post-COVID, but it seems that companies might limit travel, at least for the short term.
No. 6: Automation can be accelerated.
The global crisis pushed many companies to innovate like never before. Also, companies who have been slow to adopt technologies like Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI), have started leveraging them as a way to cut costs during economic crises. With the adoption of technology, companies have been trying to provide faster services to customers. However, this pandemic has emerged fears that automation could replace their jobs. Due to hygiene measures, many organizations, such as restaurants, retailers, etc., have been forced to find out different ways of physically presenting.
There’s a bonus: algorithms and robots do not get sick. Unfortunately, Covid-19 is scary and surrounded by uncertainty. Therefore, the highest possibility is that companies are going to digital at a faster pace and automate much faster. In the context of the pandemic, it’s possible that this would be responsible for mass unemployment.
No. 7: Cybersecurity measures will be unavoidable.
Since the large-scale adoption of work-from-home by companies and allowing their employees to access emails on their personal devices, it needs to be built with heightened cybersecurity measures more than ever before.
Here’s a harsh and alarming cybersecurity fact: Data breaches exposed 4.1 billion records in the first half of 2019 (Source: Riskbased). A data breach can potentially damage brand reputation and loss of proprietary information.
Since owning a small business and you think you are safe, we suggest you reconsider, 43% of cyber attacks target small businesses (Source: Fundera).
Additionally, a hacker attack occurs every 39 seconds (Source: Security Magazine) and a laptop computer is stolen every 53 seconds. (Source: Gartner). Such things heightened warnings to businesses around the world, allowing their employees to work remotely without secure devices. It goes without saying that the more employees a company and agency allow work-from-home, the larger ground for security breaches. A data breach can be disastrous for your company as it leads to significant revenue loss, along with a potentially damaged brand reputation, and loss of proprietary information.
To combat this disastrous loss, here’re a few highly recommended things:
- The company needs to have a security measure for monitoring at user, application, system, network, and database level.
- A company must have an active monitoring system set up.
- Organizations need to update software and firmware of their antiviruses, operating systems, and hardware with modems & routers.
This pandemic has generated unprecedented challenges for every kind of business. Businesses need to take conscious precautions to protect themselves from data breaches.
No. 8: Increase in organization complexity
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out, companies had to change. However, the financial crisis was there, and every organization had to face this. If this pandemic subsides, companies will be able to focus on investments in secondary markets, expanding their geographic diversification, and manage risks in this disturbance. It may rise in the complexity of organizational management and size, which can create challenges for business leaders.
Not only this, but organizational complexity makes complications in career pathing. It’s also important to enable business units to customize performance management by rendering reskilling and career development support.
In conclusion
Of course, the year 2020 didn’t exactly turn out how everybody expected. But we hope that the businesses will eventually find a path out of these dark times. Also, the companies who have been working this time will inevitably learn to operate and will become more productive.
Nobody knows the period of crisis, the global impact, and ramifications. But there’s still hope for all of us in this pandemic, too. As Winston Churchill once said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”