For most of the year, the world has been locked down under the influence of the pandemic and buried under the weight of the many COVID-19 protocols that currently control our lives. Companies are still working through developing remote workforce solutions and strategies.
How are you adapting?
Unfortunately, in many areas of industry, businesses have suffered, however, a great number are also developing and growing. This growth has been necessitated by change; change forced upon us by the pandemic and the many guidelines that businesses have adapted to safeguard us against Covid19.
At the center of this change is remote working, and all the collaborative technologies and strategies that come with it. For many companies, this enforced change, although difficult at first, has paid benefits that that wouldn’t have otherwise been foreseen. Workforce’s have found ways to interact, to continue to work together, and to grow into high-performing remote teams. Tools such as Zoom, Slack, Trello, and Confluence have made all of this possible, and new tools are constantly being developed, creating new ways to do business with each other.
Many businesses have moved their bricks-and-mortar companies into the cloud, which has become the new High Street. And they are all locking horns with the likes of Amazon and eBay. Supply chains and logistics have been ramped up to allow for this massive increase in online business, as have accounting systems, inventory, HR, and document management.
But remote working is, of course, not without its problems. There is an innate level of flexibility built into remote working, and this does have a tendency to blur the lines between work and home life. Business leaders must watch out for this and take steps to ensure this balance is maintained as much as is possible. And then there’s productivity. Again, managers must ensure that all team members have the tools, processes, and infrastructure they need to stay connected and engaged within their departments, and aligned with company goals, otherwise, productivity will start to suffer.
Will this become the new normal?
Quite possibly. Although there will always be the requirement for traditional businesses in traditional locations, the cloud will now play a much larger role, much sooner than had otherwise been considered. This does mean that many companies that have previously eschewed technology will need to embrace it, at least to some degree, otherwise, their profit margins will start to decline and it will be difficult to get them back.
But for many, despite some inevitable initial mistakes, a steep learning curve, and a mad scramble to get technologies, processes and strategies in place, the new remote, cloud-based normal will be a profitable place to do business.
Contact TechPoint for more info on assisting your business with remote workforce technology and strategies.
