The workplace after Covid-19
With the constant changes we must adapt to in our day to day lives due to the Coronavirus crisis, it’s not hard to visualise that the future of the workspace will involve remote working as part of the co-working environment. The past two years have seen definitive changes in the way we communicate and collaborate with others, both in our personal life as well as in the workspace. Meetings, conferences, interviews and even events have been transitioned to the online space; videoconferencing platforms have seen a colossal growth in the past year. Although they were nothing new before the pandemic, according to Forbes, 87% of employees have felt like they had a more valuable experience and a better sense of connection with their co-workers through videoconferencing, rather than a usual call.
Keep reading to find out our predictions for the future of the workplace
According to a study conducted by Buffer in 2019, 99 % of workers would like to work remotely as part of their career at least for some time. Although, for the past couple of years remote working has been viewed mainly as an increasing trend amongst employees, the COVID-19 pandemic has compelled businesses to adapt to it and find different ways to keep up with the workflow and communication, all from the comfort of personal homes. The past year can be viewed as a large-scale remote working experiment for all the companies; Although, businesses are not all the same, the situation made us all question if remote working is here to stay and what are the implications of such future? Is a hybrid work model necessary to replace the norm we were used to in the past?
At the beginning of the crisis every company responded in their own way in order to ensure their continuity and the health of their employees. Now we’re entering the stage of readjustment and there is an absolute need for defining strategies that will not only create balanced transitions from the current remote working to back on site, but will also help the companies to adapt to the current digital transformation. So, in what way can we assure a good mental health for our employees and progress, while facing constant changes? According to Microsoft, business resilience is the key.
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Building resilience amongst the people and organisation will empower everybody into achieving more; the way companies are operating by this point needs to be radically revaluated and changed. This current situation should be viewed as an opportunity for growth in which companies are not only transforming, but improving and creating future stability. According to Microsoft 80% of business leaders intend to step up their digital transformation. First of all, we must think of how employees will return safely to their workspaces and how safe those spaces will be for them. Second of all, as important as that is, we also must understand how we are going to deal with business meetings, cybersecurity and systems that facilitate our day-to-day work life. Building digital capabilities empowers employees to be more productive, collaborate more efficiently by being connected at any given time with any resources needed on hand, while having the opportunity to be more flexible with their work/personal time. Offices are not seen as critical as they used to be to promote teamwork. We are aware that many team members won’t have to return to the workspace, not necessary on the full-time basis and many job roles will need redefining, but being able to provide that flexibility and technology-oriented mindset is crucial.
Follow our next articles to dive deeper in the subject matter of transformations of the workspace after Coronavirus and what challenges and complete changes any company has to think about in order to feel empowered for the future and thrive in the face of change.
