6 Ways COVID-19 Will Change The Workplace Forever

Source: Forbes
By: William Arruda

For many of us, the coronavirus has been the most significant, and perhaps the most traumatic, experience of our lives. It will have a huge impact on us as individuals, as a society and as a workforce. Although it’s hard to imagine right now, the coronavirus crisis will end, and things will get back to normal. Well, some things will go back to the way they were. For others, there will be a new normal.

When a major event happens that poses an existential threat, many of the norms of life change, some in the short term and some for the long term. Almost two decades ago, 9/11 made an impact on how we live and behave. In that period of fear and panic in 2001, companies stopped allowing their people to travel, for example. Those policies faded, just as we no longer feel a surge of fear on the jet bridge, glancing at each other while trying determine if our fellow passengers are a threat. But the airport process that gets us into that smaller seat with less legroom has changed forever. Just try bringing a bottle of water through security, and you’ll be reminded of just one of the enduring changes.

Just as with 9/11, many of the major coronavirus changes that we’re experiencing now will evaporate, and things will go back to the way they were without much notice. We’ll adopt the mindsets and postures we had before the crisis. But the coronavirus will permanently alter many elements of how we work. Let’s first talk about how the coronavirus is unique. It’s:

·       Global. By definition, a pandemic affects almost everybody, regardless of role, industry or location on the planet. Though infection rates are higher among frontline workers, COVID-19 has affected business owners, rank-and-file staff and the many managers in between. On September 11, if you didn’t live in New York and didn’t fly a lot, your life wasn’t radically altered. With Hurricane Katrina, the nation was saddened by the devastation as they watched the tragic aftermath play out, but most Americans weren’t directly affected.

·       Enduring. Unlike a hurricane or earthquake, the pandemic has been more than a fleeting event. It has unfolded over many months, with no firm end date in sight.

·       Pervasively disruptive. The coronavirus dramatically changed the way we live and work. It affected virtually every element of life. The grocery suppliers were disrupted, schools became virtual and people who could WFH were required to do so. Things we took for granted, like a trip to the dentist or the hair salon, have become verboten.

·       Impossible to ignore. During the 2008 financial crisis or the California wildfires, there were many other news stories being shared on TV and in social media. With COVID-19, it’s been a 24/7 nearly all-consuming news cycle that’s almost exclusively focused on the pandemic.

Despite the size, scope and intensity of the coronavirus pandemic, some work activities will go back to the way they were—at least for a while. But there will be permanent changes, which will forever alter the way we think about—and behave at—work.

1. Corporate flexibility. People quickly figured out how to work from home. When the pandemic subsides, WFH will remain popular with professionals, and that will force companies—even those that were not the biggest proponents of having a virtual workforce—to become more flexible. Now that more people have had a taste of it and proven their productivity, it will be hard for companies to take it away from their talent. A Gallup survey revealed that 54% of U.S. workers would leave their current job for one that allowed them to work remotely.

And while professionals were celebrating their 30-second commute, it became clear to companies that the huge line item on their spreadsheets for real estate may not be the best way to spend their money. Having people work from home—even if it’s not everyone all the time—is proving to be profitable.

Yet we won’t see a wholesale move to remote work. Flexibility will be the new mantra—where people will be given more freedom to choose WFH. Some professionals actually missed the commute and cherished their in-person connections. So the new normal will be increased flexibility.

2. Headquarters 2.0. Your corporate office will look and operate differently. Like most workplace changes, it’s not a complete replacement, just as the resume didn’t go way when LinkedIn made having a profile a necessary personal branding tool and career asset. Apple CEO Tim Cook said that when workers go back to work, temperature checks and social distancing will likely be implemented. And that will persist for a while. But once there are medical breakthroughs like treatments and vaccines, offices will be more about interaction and community than about heads-down focus on individual productivity.

Conference rooms, meeting spaces and video studios will take up a lot of office space. The workplace will become a far more social environment, not a “lock myself in the office” scenario. It will be designed to foster and promote interaction and community engagement—taking advantage of the times talent is collocated in one place. Our humanity and connection are what separate us from robots. Nothing will take the place of those serendipitous interactions that often lead to creativity and innovation, and COVID-19 has made us appreciate those interactions more than ever.

3. Work-ready homes. Many professionals found WFH a challenge not because of isolation, but because they didn’t have the ideal space or a dedicated home office. They didn’t have a Zoom-ready spot for video meetings. A study by GetApp reports that the majority of survey respondents cited a lack of proper technology for remote work that hindered their success and productivity.

One of the biggest challenges people experienced while WFH was internet performance. WhistleOut, a company that provides information about mobile phone and internet services, performed research on adults who transitioned to WFH. The  revelations? 35% of those surveyed said that weak Internet has prevented them from doing their work at some point during the Coronavirus crisis and 43% said they have had to use their phone as a hotspot during the crisis.

Internet in homes will improve, drastically and quickly. Home offices and even home video studios will become a priority. As new homes are built or existing ones are remodeled, WFH considerations will be the top priority for many. Technology will be developed to create an environment that more closely resembles a WeWork than a suburban townhouse. A recent article from Fast Company featured a design firm Argodesign, which has unveiled a concept called the Square, an artificial window you install on a wall next to your desk. Raising the window shade reveals your colleagues who appear to be working alongside you.

4. E-learning for everyone. We all know that learning is now front and center, and many organizations realize that upskilling and right-skilling are essential for innovation and strategic advantage. Many corporate learning programs involved in-person workshops and seminars. But post COVID-19, e-learning will become a bigger part of ongoing learning. In-person learning programs won’t go away, but they’ll be reserved for certain functions and certain populations within the company. Face-to-face learning will likely be just a small element of a learning curriculum. Ramping up their e-learning platforms, companies moved quickly to ensure that their people were still building important skills and developing professionally.

5. Business attire is retiring. We got comfortable with getting comfortable. You may have dressed up for work before COVID-19. And even if you got dressed up every day while WFH, it’s unlikely that you put on a suit or heels. Sure, Anna Wintour likely won’t walk into Vogue in sweats (unless that’s the new fashion sensation) and maybe some people in Finance will keep the button-down and tie or the blouse and pearls, but the trend toward casual attire will accelerate quickly. Already, some consulting firms and other organizations have “dress for your day” policies where if you’re not meeting with clients, you can leave the suit at home. Besides, people working in tech have been wearing shorts and flip flops to work for decades.

6. Video virtuosos. Video is at the heart of many of the changes above. The developers behind Zoom, WebEx, Hangouts, Skype and other video communications tools made the grand WFH experiment possible. Video became fully integrated into the work experience in an astonishing variety of ways. Queens-based real estate brokerage Modern Spaces created a group TikTok channel, where its marketing team took on TikTok challenges, creating funny, light-hearted videos to make the agents smile. I have been video’s biggest fan for years, yet there was a lingering reticence to use video. Well, most people got used to video overnight, and there’s no putting the video camera back in the closet.

As supervisors and staffers have gotten used to seeing each other in their natural habitats, the line that separates work life and personal life has faded. Ironically, technology has made this transition possible, but it has also led to a decidedly low-tech reality: this new corporate world has made us value our organic, non-robotic humanity more than ever before.