Surface Ripples

No Going Back…

“We will not go back to normal.  Normal never was.  Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalised greed, inequity, exhaustion, depletion, extraction.  We should not long to return, my friends, we are being given the opportunity to stitch a new garment. One that fits all of humanity and nature."

The above was a putative mural ascribed to a quote by Sonya Renee Taylor.  Whether she was indeed the original source or simply borrowed it and commissioned it to be put on a mural, the message is a thought-provoking one.  It has been the subject of much comment on social media. 

The post-COVID era has provided an opportunity for a revolution in work practices.  The infrastructure to support Working from Home (WFH) or “remote working” had been in place for some time (and will only improve as we move forward), but working practices remain stuck in the past, sometimes for sensible reasons, sometimes not.   A poll on LinkedIn found that opinion was split almost 40/40 between preference to WFH or at an office.

For those whose work can be done from home, there is every reason to allow this.  It saves employees time, as well as the cost and stress of commuting and feeding themselves at work.  If transport costs rise, this will inevitably feed into a need to increase salaries to retain commuting staff.  It also reduces the need for more office space, meaning a saving in rent costs to employers.  

Among the downsides are lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues, a need to review how performance is measured/appraisals delivered and the issue of how to “onboard” new hires if they can’t come to the office.  Alongside this may be an increase in the IT infrastructure and support costs needed to manage an increasingly remote workforce.  Employees will also need to find a space at home where they can work without distraction.  For a single person or married couple, this is relatively straightforward, but once small children enter the picture, they may find it difficult to understand why mummy/daddy is at home all day but not playing with them.  

Just as daily commuting brought its own stresses, so will WFH.  As ever, we will need to adapt.  The upsides 

There remain industries which require workers to be on site such as (to name a few):

• Manufacturing.
• Healthcare (although much of the latter could be delivered remotely in less serious cases by “flying doctors”, reliving the pressure on overstretched hospitals and clinics).  
• Supermarkets and stores in general will also need workers.
• Agriculture.
• Transport.
• Tourism and hospitality.  

Some employers seem to have addressed the remote issue effectively by allowing staff to WFH a certain number of days/week and providing them with office laptops and mobile phones.  The productivity and morale gains seem, at first sight, to outweigh the disadvantages.

With the spectre of another pandemic looming over us, we have seen the costs in terms of too much centralisation and need to be better prepared for the next “wave”, whenever it comes…

I’ve spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With a wealth of international experience in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management.  I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.  For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.

Labels: Career, Customer Care, Leadership, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 11:04