Posted on: May 1, 2020

Homeworking – The “New Normal”?

It’s not just about the technology

Introduction

Many of you reading this article will have shared a common experience. Someone – it may even have been you – will have discussed the current Covid-19 lockdown and how employees are having to work from home, how it seemed impossible or improbable that it would work, but actually “it’s not as bad as we thought!”

This article is about what happens in the “new normal” when the lockdown is lifted and social distancing is a distant memory. We have already heard a number of clients asking the same kind of questions:

• Do we need to have everyone working back in our offices?

• Do we need as many or as big offices?

• Do our employees need to lose as much of their own time commuting in the first place?

• Will we still be able to run an effective operation?

• What are the risks to the organisation, data, compliance, standards?

• Will our people even want to work remotely from home?

Change is never easy and nobody would have instructed their employees to work from home overnight in normal circumstances, yet here we are. So this change has been thrust upon us but it will need careful planning and crystal clear structures and roles to make it effective when the lockdown is lifted, or else we will simply return to the way we were before.

The truth is that some companies will go back to how they were, either because they have to or because they don’t know how to reshape the organisation. However, there will also be many organisations that embrace the change, identify which roles and teams can and cannot work from home and structure their business around the new possible.

Download the full article to see how you can maximise the very real benefits, and avoid the many pitfalls.