COVID-19 and the World of Work

The outbreak of Covid-19 has fundamentally changed the way we work, learn, and spend. The crisis and its significant aftermaths will profoundly alter organizational and individual behaviors and beliefs, requiring new approaches in the world of work for government, business, and nonprofit organizations.

No organization, including yours, will return to normal following a crisis. This requires you to identify and lead the organization to a better future state. In creating your new normal, you and your senior leadership team (SLT) must think and act both tactically and strategically about a host of factors. And, you must do this while simultaneously operating under immense pressure and scrutiny.

To lead strategically relates to your ability to assess what is going on in the external environment—the world outside of your organization—and where it is headed. A prerequisite for success is an open mindset. Without an open mind, you fall prey to the status quo. Being open-minded allows you to change your views based on new information and facts. You are adaptive and flexible to new ideas and experiences. Your success correlates directly to your mindset and skills set in the art and practice of strategic leadership.

You only need to look back to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the great recession of 2008 to see the resultant behavioral and belief changes in personal, government and nongovernment strategies, policies, and actions. For example, today organizations and people readily accept the inconvenience of TSA screening and the enhanced use of surveillance and the decrease in personal privacy allowed by the Patriot Act.

The residue from the financial crisis of 2008 continues to scar many organizations and individuals today. One out of every five workers lost their job during that crisis. Organizations resorted to employing temporary workers/contractors. Workers gravitated to these part-time jobs just to have a job. Today, many of those workers have not yet recovered. Important skill-development opportunities and human resource practices suffered. Young people just entering the job market during and following the crisis returned home to live with their parents. Seeing what their parents went through during the crisis influences many of today’s millennials to forego homeownership and rent—affecting the homebuilding businesses and their suppliers.

Clearly, the resultant impact of Covid-19 will be more dramatic and disruptive. While many of these changes are currently unknowable, I suggest the following seven factors be kept in mind as you evaluate your next steps for success in the “new normal.”

Consumers. More than any time in the recent past, identifying potential buying trends and processes as well as goods and services will separate winning and losing organizations. Your ability to adapt to buyers’ changing needs will go a long way to creating competitive advantage over those organizations that are unprepared, not agile, or focused on returning to their previous normal operations.

Consumers, for example, are more likely to consider options that enhance personal and family security and health. This can lead to enhanced use of telemedicine and emphasis on personal safety when visiting retailers. The dramatic increase in consumer online purchasing, be it goods and services or education and training, requires rethinking business models and operational planning. Such attitude changes can dramatically effect brick and mortar schoolhouses and universities as well as big-box storefronts. The huge increase in streaming video enhances major players, e.g., Netflix and Hulu, which could result in a decrease in pre-pandemic entertainment policies and programs.

Social Mores. Everyone is becoming more interested in the social side of organizational responsibilities. Sustainability will be an even more important factor in strategic thinking and planning than pre-pandemic. Organizational members may be interested in contributing more of their time and expertise to those outside of their organizations in concert with performing their professional responsibilities.

There will be other concerns that could affect your workers’ behaviors. Workers living in congested areas, e.g., cities, may look for job opportunities in other communities with less personal health risk. How will your workers return to work? Will they flock back to using mass transit (subways/trains/buses)?

Urbanization and Globalization. Urbanization and globalization have been the backbone of both the US and global economy for years. People have flocked to cities (especially millennials). The massive increase in economic conditions pre-pandemic resulted from factories and supply-chain organizations springing up around the globe. Since the 2008 great recession, however, there has been a concern about the effects of globalization. Massive trade agreements led to loss of US jobs as those jobs went overseas. Furthermore, many elites see globalization as adding to the growing inequality among people and nations.

While the foregoing is an overly broad concern, your organization must take supply-chain management and capabilities into your strategic thinking and planning. Relying on critical elements of your goods and services being produced or assembled outside your direct control—even outside your country—can leave you devastated in the future. Such deficiencies were clearly illustrated with most of the critical vaccine ingredients, medicines, and supporting health equipment and supplies originating in China.

Struggling Institutions. While it is understood that large numbers of small businesses will have difficulty reviving their businesses, there are major organizations whose future goods and services can be jeopardized as the country moves forward. Examples include educational and training organizations that rely on classroom instruction. Leisure and travel organizations have an unsure footing for future prosperity. The major and minor sports leagues are facing major obstacles to their sports. How, for example, will a team function if one or two of its players come down with the virus? The question of spectators being allowed to participate is especially important to owners who derive revenues from live attendance. How will Broadway theatre and the cinema regain avid followers?

Remote Work. One of the big surprises during the pandemic was the ease in which many organizations set up work processes in which managers and employees could work from home quite effectively. Anecdotal evidence indicates that a large percentage of workers believe they were/are more productive working from home. Many say they loved not making the long commute to work, freeing up time for both personal and professional activities.

As such, you may consider taking advantage of remote work in your future planning.You may identify talent in other localities that can add to your organizational intellectual and creative strength. This could enhance your recruitment efforts.

Based on my experience with telework, I suggest three potential elements be considered.

• Depending on the specific work, some people will not be as effective as in a group setting. 
• Some people will not be able to set clear boundaries between work and non-work activities. All leaders and workers need to take a break from work, if for no other reason than to recharge their batteries. Not being able to separate work from life could result in less than optimum thinking and performance.
• Long-term remote work could limit or diminish your organizational culture of collaboration, leadership development and mentorship, creativity, and innovation—which often are enhanced through face-to-face interaction and dialog.

Employee Health. Clearly, people around the world are fixated on staying healthy because of the virus. As such, it is essential you include health and wellness as one of your priority factors in your strategic thinking and planning as you move into the “new normal.” This will be especially important until a reliable vaccine is readily available. For example, you may be expected to provide ongoing protective equipment and medical testing within the organization, rather than they be provided by an outside healthcare organization or the government.

Government and Doing What’s RightGovernment’s role during the pandemic was massive and is most likely to remain that way for the foreseeable future. Positive outcomes are the ongoing collaboration and joint ventures between government and corporations in response to the virus.

The massive infusion of government funds to prop up businesses, healthcare facilities and organizations, and development of vaccines is both notable and a concern. Massive government debt may reduce your ability to gain funding for new ventures, expansion, transformation, and innovation. Likewise, due to the loss of tax revenue, mayors and governors will have difficulty providing extended goods and services. Such shortfalls could limit supplies and services for sale to federal and local government organizations for a significant timeframe.

With government taking a strong hand, it has led many to question the right of government to curtail their businesses and opportunities to work. Such concerns often lead to lack of trust in our national institutions, government, and businesses to do what’s right for the common good. It is essential that you ensure you and your SLT’s actions are viewed as ethical and moral and in the best interests of your organization’s stakeholders, members, and customers.

Conclusion

No organization, including yours, will return to normal following Covid-19. With this and the seven above factors in mind, I suggest you and your senior leadership team must have an open and inquiring mindset. Many of the changes you will face in the future remain unknowable. This requires you and your team to be willing to learn a wide variety of factors on an ongoing basis. It is through such scanning, learning, and interpreting, you and your leadership team can generate the necessary informed foresight that can set your organization up for success as you enter into the “new normal.”

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