Beyond Covid-19
COVID-19 has changed the way we conduct and manage business activity forever. During the past 3 months many have been forced to work from a home environment, or a combination of both work-from-home and work-from-office. This requirement has driven new business initiatives in efforts for us to “stay connected” with colleagues, customers, and suppliers that have changed the paradigm for what is acceptable in business.
Working from home has been an adjustment for employers with some implementing systems to monitor work commitment accountability; while others quickly extended higher levels of trust to the employee expecting they would remain focused to the workflow with the same dedication to their working tasks as if in an office environment. This new normal required immediate adjustment as adoption of the new requirement was without option.
A working from home arrangement for employers, prior to Covid-19 was rarely an option. Being remotely connected to the office presented concerns for accountability, communication, and control. As we slowly emerge from the quarantined environment, the big question for today is, “will the past 3 months change the way employers view a work from home arrangement in the future”?
Working from home required adjustment for the employee as well unless there was some sort of previous experience. The work from home activity required a home office setup and a quiet place to work - this may not have been suitable for all. Others, who were more socially connected to the office may have found the lack of personal interaction a demotivating fact for their ability to remain task focused. Yet others thrived in the experience with increased dedication and commitment to the opportunity. With less distraction they were able to complete their required assignments with increased efficiency and a new-found capability to accomplish more in significantly less time. Sort of like the day before you go on vacation – where you just seem more focused to complete what needed to be completed – if only we had that same dedication every day!
We were quick to adopt increased use of VoIP technology in the workplace to make vital business connections; meetings became virtual with online scheduling for suitable appointment times. What surprised me most of all was how we become more efficient managers of our time. We were forced to be on time, meetings had a start time and a scheduled end time to create direct engagement to the subject and the need for the meeting. We rediscovered our ability to remain attentive to conversations without mobile phone distractions. I am sure some learnt that the phone has a silence mode or an off switch. If there was an urgent call, we were able to mute the online meeting so not to distract all others in the virtual meeting room.
While we lacked the physical and social connection of meeting in person the online meeting demonstrated efficient values that have changed the business platform today and forever.
As the world begins to end the pandemic lockdowns and as people return to (a resemblance of) normality what we have experienced during this time of crisis will dramatically change the business platform for years to come. Working remotely from the office has proven an advantage for many organizations and online meetings have demonstrated efficiencies that had not been considered in the past. I am confident that we will remain engaged to the remote meeting environment forever even as we migrate back to our workplace office location.
