The biggest challenge for organizations during the pandemic is to minimize the risk of their employees to this disease while maintaining their operations. They have asked all or most of their employees to work from home and allowed only critical employees to work from the workplace.
As the entire world struggles to contain the spread of COVID-19, organizations are coping with their challenges.
These challenges range from significant decline in demand to stalled supply chains and loss of productivity during the current crisis.
Many organizations, especially in technology and outsourcing have had employees working from home or remote locations for many years now.
For others who have been slow in terms of the adoption of such practices, this was a rude wake-up call.
These organizations have struggled to make the necessary arrangements to enable employees to work from home during this crisis.
Organizations also need to look at the long-term impact of the pandemic on the workplace.
As things come back to normal once the crisis subsides, it might be a new normal for organizations and how they work.
This crisis will leave behind many valuable lessons that will have a significant impact on the work culture of almost every organization.
Many experts think that this outbreak may be responsible for bringing about lasting changes in the way organizations manage their workforce.
COVID-19 is already forcing most organizations to alter their work schedules that better suit the current scenario.
To mitigate the crisis, organizations have implemented work-from-home policies to stay functional during this crisis.
Such changes are sure to have both short and long-term impacts on the working of the employees.
Many HR experts think that the pandemic might have provided organizations with a golden opportunity to test various options they might just have not considered till now.
1. Work From Home Policy
2. Digital Workplace
3. Flexible Work Timings
4. Higher Employee Engagement
5. Positive Impact On Work Culture
Organizations had allowed a small percentage of employees to work from home even before the COVID-19 crisis for personal needs.
Now, organizations are being forced to reduce the number of employees at the workplace by more than half.
In this situation, permitting the employees to work from home can help reduce business losses significantly.
It will also help organizations gain an understanding of the effectiveness of adopting this policy on a long-term basis.
They will be able to ascertain the impact of providing such freedom to the employees on the productivity of employees vis-à-vis the costs of setting up and maintaining physical workplaces for all employees.
Due to time saved in commuting, the employee might become more productive from home.
Also, they may be able to manage work-life balance better, leading to higher employee satisfaction.
Many organizations will get an opportunity to test the waters by working from home during this crisis and do a cost-benefit analysis, which helps them shape their policies in the long term.
The lockdown or the shutdown over several weeks will make organizations sit up and think about investing in digital work tools much more seriously; especially those organizations that have lagged in this aspect.
Employees especially those who are older and haven’t adopted the digital ways of working as much, will be initiated into it and will start a slow process of adoption.
As a result, the workplace will become much more digitally savvy, and unnecessary paperwork will be reduced.
Meetings, discussions, and even presentations might be conducted online even after the crisis ends.
Employees will be much more comfortable interacting with each other remotely using digital methods.
Digital working is important not just for taking over crises like this but also for increasing the overall efficiency and productivity of the workforce.
Hence, organizations will start looking at the complete digitization of business processes and faster adoption of digital work tools going forward.
Another strategy that organizations have been implementing for a long time but only for a small segment of their employees is providing flexible work timings.
In the current crisis, organizations are asking employees to come to the office on alternate days or even alternate weeks until the pandemic subsides.
In some organizations, work timings are also getting staggered for different sets of employees.
The current situation allows organizations to assess the effectiveness of flexible work timings from the perspective of productivity as well as employee convenience.
Based on the results, they will be able to formulate a flexible work policy of allowing employees to choose their work hours at their convenience.
Employees may be allowed to come to the office early or leave early, and work in the late evening or night shifts, based on their convenience and personal needs without impacting their work.
This policy can help attract and retain employees who need such flexibility in their schedules.
There is no doubt that this is one of the most difficult times for the entire human race.
Organizations have supported their workforce by allowing them to work from home to minimize the risk of exposure.
Most employees are likely to remember this humanitarian gesture of their employers for many years to come.
This will help in strengthening their commitment and dedication towards their organization.
Also, organizations are engaged in an open and transparent dialogue with their employees.
They are apprising them of the situation continuously and taking feedback and inputs from them whenever needed.
This has brought the organization and the employees closer.
They share the common goal of keeping the business up and running while minimizing the risks of exposure.
Despite implementing remote working policies, employees have collaborated effectively during these times of crisis.
They have been more understanding and supportive of each other. Employees have helped each other in using digital work tools and working remotely.
This has helped reduce the gap between the different generations of employees within the workforce.
The younger generation of employees has helped the older generation with the nuances of digital working.
While the older generation has provided reassurance to the younger ones on managing such crises based on their experience.
Also, being on the digital platform, communication between team members has become much faster and more transparent.
This is leading to a more positive and open work culture.
While the world is still coming to terms with this deadly virus outbreak, the crisis will eventually end. However, it will leave behind a lot of important lessons for the entire humanity.
Organizations too will have a lot to learn from this, which will impact how they run and manage their businesses in the future and how their workplaces operate. The long-term impact of the pandemic on the workplace will be significant.
Lead author: Sagar Chaudhuri, the Co-Founder and CEO of HiFives. He is an HR Tech Evangelist with over 25 years of corporate and entrepreneurship experience. In the past, Sagar has worked with companies such as Genpact, Infosys, and ICICI Bank, in leadership roles. He has an engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur and an MBA from IIM Lucknow. Connect on LinkedIn
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