Whether the pandemic-driven work changes are going to stick or not, is a question whose answer varies from organization to organization. However, for most organizations and companies, they are most likely to stick.
Most employees are already in agreement with the changes. And not so surprisingly, employers are considering whether the changes should stick or go in their companies.
Why would you rent a large expensive office space when you could just let your employees work from home as you save both space and money?
If they can’t work unsupervised, then they are not self-driven which is a required skill while hiring employees.
You could as well forget about the office working space, the time wasted around as employees socialize with each other and get stuck in traffic alone could just be diverted to more efficient working hours.
Even when you ask most of the employees, they’ll tell you that they don’t have to burn fuel or gas going to work every day or more so spend on transport charges. These little daily expenses when saved, add up to a lot of money.
They will tell you how the line between work and home has been blurred. They can stay home with their families and still work efficiently. Of course, those that are self-driven.
What could be better than that?
The pandemic has brought about changes in technology. There has been an upgrade in technology most especially in product manufacturing industries.
The level of automation has greatly increased and this in return has made work more human and easy.
Some of the pandemic-driven work changes include;
Work places being anywhere and everywhere
Just yesterday, if you didn’t step in that office then you had missed work and without any excuse or prior notice, you would most likely be suspended or expelled.
And today, you’ve woken up to your cup of tea or coffee and your laptop ready to work on the kitchen counter, on the compound, or anywhere in the house.
This change is definitely going to stick for many industries. All they’ll have to do is put in place supervising measures to ensure efficiency at work. Or maybe the outcome will always tell.
An organization or industry owning office space is yet to become optional and owning a website more compulsory than ever before.
Use of online meeting tools
Gone are the days when people were absent at meetings due to some unforeseen last-minute incidents or long distances.
With the current meeting platforms like zoom, Google meets, and others, having traveled doesn’t prevent you from missing a meeting.
Besides that, long boring unproductive meetings have just been made shorter and more fun online.
It makes me think, no matter what happens, these meeting tools are going to stick at several workplaces.
The shift in individual expectations
The most interesting unforeseen part about the pandemic-driven changes is the shift in individual expectations. In most workplaces, it has always been about bureaucracy and the need to compete with fellow employees.
The pandemic-driven work changes favor lack of competition. Employees now have to focus on what matters most to them and this could be a step towards increasing work efficiency.
However, lack of competition could also be a setback for some employees.
Workers usually derive motivation to work from the need to compete with others.
This is one of the issues employers have to consider in case they want the pandemic-driven work changes to stick. They could put in place a more favorable measure to keep their workers motivated most times amidst all the interruptions at home.
With the pandemic coming overnight, a lot of organizations and companies have made huge efforts within a short time frame to adapt to the changing work settings.
The post-pandemic is yet to reveal to us the new normal livelihood considering all the changes that have occurred.
