From pandemic to endemic: how can firms adapt to a virus that’s here to stay

Shops have reopened. We can go down the pub for a not-so-sneaky pint. And on the shoulders of a highly successful vaccine rollout, it feels like we’re entering a new stage in the pandemic. But we’re now faced with the question of how we live with the virus, rather than believing we can live without it. And businesses have to get their heads around the many implications of that. Fast. 

The government refers to the disease evolving from pandemic to endemic. Apply that in a broader sense, and there needs to be a readiness to live and work in new ways and still grow and thrive. It’s about resilience: economic; physical; mental; in our workforces and in our culture.

Right now, firms are trying to make sense of levels of demand and how they will return. They’re trying to understand structural shifts in consumer behaviour. And from one sector to another, from one business to another, the answers will be different.

In the workplace, business leaders need to account for the health imbalances between the vaccinated and the non-vaccinated. They’re concerned with how they deal with the threat of variants and future waves. It makes workplace testing and guidance on social distancing really important issues for them.

 They also need to handle staff anxiety around the return to the office and to continue to adapt to a whole new range of working practices – hybrid working, remote working and relentless digital developments. All of which have implications for their economic model, for their workplace culture, and for mental health.

And it’s the issue of mental health I want to focus on.

I have never before seen such senior level concern – both in nature and depth – around mental health in the workplace and the mental health of employees.

Many people across the country had no choice but to bring the challenges, the hardships, and the anxiety, caused – or worsened – by the pandemic with them to work. The stresses and strains have built up and we’ve all let the exhaustion show.

It’s as true for bosses as it has been for their employees. I’ve been lucky. I got to change my job. And they say a change is as good as a rest.

Even so, when meeting new people is what really excites me, I’ve had to learn how to derive energy from a video screen. That’s been hard. And that dynamic of remote working makes it all the more impressive that firms have got their employees to open up about their mental health.

Their efforts have not gone unnoticed. Research shows trust in business has grown over the last year. And I’d argue it’s changed the very nature of the employer-employee relationship. It’s like there’s a new contract between them, where work isn’t just about a pay packet or skills learnt, but somewhere that is also attentive to their physical and mental health.

We mustn’t lose that. We must absolutely embed it.

It's now just a question of working out how to do it best

Every time I meet a business leader, they want to talk about mental health and wellbeing. I’m amazed at the volume of time CEOs at companies both large and small are spending, genuinely tackling this as a business-critical issue. They are gathering data, bringing senior executives together, and talking to their workforce. They are in problem solving mode.

And that’s the point. Although the crisis has brought out the humanity in employers, the focus on mental health and wellbeing has aligned with the importance of business continuity. There’s an enlightened self-interest behind all of this. The recognition that by doing the right thing, business benefits.

By its very nature, commitment from the top – with more senior managers talking about mental health – will help remove the stigma and the barriers around seeking help.

Sharing their stories on open platforms, and encouraging others to do the same. Building networks. Believing in the value of a simple phonecall, at random, from someone in the senior management team asking how you are. Or recognising that they need outside help to take those first steps in fostering a more open workplace culture.

Pulse surveys and Mental Health First Aiders are quite rightly becoming a standard response – if not the bare minimum. And the best managers will have been trained to understand how work can help or hurt the team member who’s affected.

Because although work can be a problem for mental health, it’s often at the heart of the solutions.

So let’s look at this as an opportunity, not a threat – to build on the experience of the last year to make strong mental health, emotional resilience and access to preventative care a fundamental part of the world of work going forward.

It’s in the interest of firms, of employees and it’s in the interest of the country.