While offices are closed due to the COVID-19 response, employees in every business are proving the model that you don’t need to be in a physical office from 8 AM to 5 PM to be productive and accountable. This moment is paving the way for the entire workforce to be able to do at least some portion of their jobs where and when it's most practical.
"Never let a good crisis go to waste"
This quote by Saul Alinsky and leveraged by Rahm Emmanuel, who added, "It’s an opportunity to do the things you once thought were impossible", gives a call to leverage this challenge to ensure that your organization is poised to thrive under the next big disruption.
Great organizations will survive this challenging time with a demonstrated ability and willingness to adapt, strengthen, and differentiate. They will shed the things that hold them back while building core capabilities and will be greater than they were before.
It might feel like this is the time to pause, tighten expenses, and cancel forward-looking projects. It might feel like it’s time to stay the course to demonstrate confidence. Some of this is a good idea, but do you have a plan that allows you to move faster and be nimbler than before?
One of these plans may likely be an update to the employee experience, as you can’t put this genie back in the bottle. While employees are working productively from home, their expectations of work when things come back to the new normal are going to be evolved. Most are earning that with demonstrated accountability to deliver their work with less oversight. Others may need policy or a different kind of management.
This is shining a light on changes that need to happen and now the future of work is being created in real-time. Up to this point we have seen the slow and gradual adoption of change to how people work. Organizations have invested in productivity tools and cloud-based systems that allow for work to be more mobile, but they have been hesitant to adopt real solutions that give employees what they have been asking for.
Take this opportunity to make serious changes to how your organization works. Not an emergency response, but an opportunity to improve and learn and take with us to the future.
Seapine can help by assessing the needs of leaders and the wants of employees, drafting the new rules, and navigating you through the new normal post COVID-19.