EVANGELIZE RESOURCES / David Hole
How the office will change in 2021
The Big Question It is the big question everyone is asking themselves, “how are things going to be different after the pandemic when we are back in the office?”
It is an interesting subject because everyone I have spoken with over the past few months on this subject has come up with something different.So personally there lies the issue in a nutshell.Most people agree that the office will change for them, but it might not be just how many hours we work from home/remotely, or how we engage with others that will be the biggest change.
I think the biggest underlying change will be how we now think of working time in the context of our lives as a whole.
When we work from home does everything really become more social than professional because we can get up, have a break and interrogate a fridge that we know is relatively clean and contains foodstuffs we have bought ourselves?.Not having that guy from accounts’ cheese sandwich that has been in there a week or so and requires a tetanus injection just to move to a different part of the fridge, will be an obvious advantage.Flexibility does not need to make everything less professional but personal distractions like children being at home from school, the postman delivering those Amazon purchases, your dog barking on that zoom call, subliminally ensure that is how things feel when you work from home.
We probably all slightly feel that working from home is a privilege.
In many job advertisements it is listed as a benefit when really the employer now has 24/7 access to you at home because of how that ‘privilege’ has been sold to you at the interview.If your employer is happy with you working from home how will you be able to not answer a call at 8pm on a Friday evening when they might need something.
Key changes we are seeing at Evangelize directly relate to how information is exchanged, how employees are being managed, and most importantly how projects and services are being delivered.
Service levels have dropped and that is not good enough for the foreseeable future. Service driven industries have to look at service management and do something about wait times and client perception.Waiting 40 mins for a call to be answered will not ‘cut the mustard’ once the pandemic starts to become a distant memory and probably by then, most of an organisations clients will be safely with the company that has addressed the issue already.
So what can organisations do to smooth this post pandemic transition?
Employee engagement will be key, re-defining business processes will be important, but the singular most important thing an organisation can do moving forward will be to look at what services it is delivering today and where it wants to be tomorrow… because next week, next month, next year, will be considerably different from last week, last month, last year.Working from home is great for employees, it provides flexibility, more free time and ensures a better all round life blend, but productivity has been hit hard and needs to recover for many organisations so don’t expect things to change too much from what we had before.
Review your products and services so you are clear what you have, what needs to change and do it now. Because your competitors have already started
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