It’s no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically and irreversibly changed the way many people live and work.
There has been a lot of attention paid to the impacts to employees, but a lot less from the employer’s perspective.
If businesses want to thrive in the future, the key to their success depends on one word:
FLEXIBILITY.
Below I’m going to discuss two ways organizations need to demonstrate their flexibility if they want to be relevant in the future:
- Being operationally prepared for a future of recurring and sudden lockdowns.
- Offering employees the flexibility they crave around when and where they work.
Early in the pandemic, government leaders said lockdowns were just a short-term solution to “flatten the curve.” Unfortunately, it was NOT short-term at all.
After a year and a half, the frequency of lockdowns is finally waning.
The majority of office workers are still working remotely, but many employers are now calling them back to the office – in hopes of returning to pre-pandemic days.
Unfortunately, this is a very short-sighted move for many employers for two big reasons…
Recurring Lockdowns
The COVID-19 pandemic has been precedent-setting.
World leaders proved their ability to shut down the economy, close offices, and send office-working employees home to work.
The original message was it was only temporary to “flatten the curve.”
Unfortunately, the reality was the lockdowns were not temporary.
It would be foolish for a business NOT to prepare itself for future, abrupt office closings.
As the saying goes: it is better to prepare and not need it than to need it and not be prepared.
Businesses should create a plan to redirect some or all of their resources from traditional, brick-and-mortar offices to infrastructure and support for remote working arrangements.
While some employers are calling their employees back to the office in late 2021, they need to ask themselves:
“Are we prepared for another virus, variant, or other health or climate crisis, forcing us to send employees home to work again?”
In the end, it behooves businesses to invest in at least some version of a remote work culture for optimal flexibility in the future.
Employee Sentiment
In the early part of the lockdown, many employees were apprehensive about working remotely. They questioned if they could really be effective and happy while working remotely.
Most embraced it because we were told it would only be temporary (which it wasn’t).
Interestingly, a lot of people actually prefer it, feeling more happy and productive with their new found independence and autonomy.
According to Buffer’s 2021 State of Remote Work, 97.6% want to work remotely at least part of the time for the rest of their career.
Additionally, more than half (57%) said flexible work schedules or the ability to work from anywhere was the top benefit from working remotely.
As it turns out, employees CRAVE some degree of remote working, giving them more flexibility.
Therefore, it only makes sense for employers to embrace remote working arrangements.
Attract and Retain Top Talent
Top businesses understand the importance of being competitive in attracting and retaining the best human resources.
This is especially true since ‘salaries, wages, and benefits’ often make-up the largest expense line-item.
If organizations want to attract and retain top talent, they must convey confidence in their employees.
They can do this through flexible work schedules and the ability to work from anywhere.
If they don’t, the answer is pretty simple. They risk losing their top talent to companies who will.
Companies are NOTHING without their employees!
Thought Experiment
Imagine if all the best employees wanted to work remotely and refused to return to the office.
The result is pretty obvious: those who know their worth (often the best employees) will find opportunities elsewhere, leaving former employers with only sub-par talent.
In the words of Walter White from Breaking Bad, employers need to “tread lightly.”
Wrap-up
Flexibility is the name of the game now and all signs point to some form of remote working culture:
- Remote working to prepare for the future of repeated lockdowns
- Remote working as a mechanism for attracting and retaining top talent
Companies that want to stay relevant need to think creatively for new ways of doing things.
The bottom line is: old ways will not work going forward.