A few months ago, commuting through busy traffic, entering a crowded offices, and sitting down in an open workspace right next to several colleagues were everyday activities. But COVID-19 changed that. For employers and employees, the workplace experience may never be the same — and businesses need to evolve to meet the needs of this post-pandemic world.
What does that new work environment look like? The answer is simple: create a new model of hybrid working where employees work remotely and only come into the office to collaborate on projects. The office becomes a business center, which may involve a shift in the way we work and collaborate with our teams.
As Indian IT Industry is mostly based on Factory Model, It would be business as usual for Clients Projects which has stringent privacy requirements. But Internal projects, support activities like Delivery Excellence, Process Audit, Internal Product Development would see increase in WFH unlike Pre-COVID.
Hybrid work is going to new normal going forward
Today, many companies are already starting to think about what that looks like, and some like Google, Facebook, Twitter and Shopify have even implemented permanent, extended or indefinite work from home (WFH) policies. It is clear this shift is here to stay. According to recent research from Gartner, 82 percent of company leaders are planning to let employees work remotely, at least some of the time. And a new global Lenovo study finds that employees expect a similar swing in employer mentality, with 52 percent of respondents noting they believe they’ll continue to WFH more than they did pre-COVID-19 – even after social distancing measures lift.
As employers realize that this distributed workforce is not going anywhere, the shift to the office as a business center will only continue to grow. This will make the need for a solid IT foundation, inclusive of dependable employee personal devices, strong cybersecurity software (and education), and remote IT support even more integral than it once was.
In looking at the role of technology and how it has evolved during this pandemic, we can take a step back to when COVID-19 first started to impact businesses globally. The number of remote employees increased at a pace more rapid than anyone expected or was even prepared to handle. As a result, the usage of collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom skyrocketed, with Teams seeing an increase as much as 70 percent and Zoom surpassing 300 million daily meeting users in the midst of the pandemic in April 2020. In this process, as employees and consumers alike started leaning on video to spend time with coworkers — whether for meetings or company “happy hours” — these tools evolved their functionalities to make the user experience more seamless.
Preparing for a Hybrid model
With that mindset, technology will only continue to evolve to meet employee and employer needs. Beyond collaboration software, the other tools that remain central for employee productivity in our hybrid work environment include personal laptops, noise-canceling headsets and monitors.
For IT departments, this makes it integral to invest in the infrastructure that enables IT to manage a large remote workforce. This can include increasing cloud storage for more remote storage, doubling down on security solutions to manage the increase in cyber threats and implementing remote IT solutions to help troubleshoot employee tech issues from afar.
While the new “business center” model may not be a fit for all organizations, one thing we know is that office as we know it will be different in the coming years. Work from anywhere will become a norm, company real estate footprints may shrink and employees will expect much more of their employers than ever before.
Vivek K, Associate Director-Client Acquisition, ADHOC Recruitment.