Today we can’t use yesterday’s methods to survive and thrive in tomorrow’s world.

The coronavirus pandemic will eventually become a distant memory, and we will be talking about it in years to come and remember how our lives changed and adapted. For example, overnight we have become teachers to our kids and quicky embraced that Saturday night is (Zoom) Quiz night!

However, I feel the impact will leave an impression on the way we work and integrate.

It looks like there is going to be deep changes in the way we approach our working life and think about our future working environment.

• Homeworking – I feel it is here to stay. Businesses need to accept it and adapt, through supporting staff to be fully functional at home, providing equipment and technology to allow them to flourish.
• Video conferencing – There has been an increased number of meetings via various platforms. Zoom, for example, has exploded to 20 to 200 million users.
• Central City office space – The notion for many years has been you need to have a central city location. Great for your customers and being central attracts the best talent from all the Home Counties. Can we honestly say that now? I feel office space demand will drop per user, per space, for example, an 80 user based organisation in a lavish 100 desk office may now opt to reduce this and allow flexible desk share between the team.
• Private corporate transport – An interesting note. China has seen private transport companies on the up as employers lay on (for example) 7 seater vehicles who share a similar area to take workers to their central based offices and naturally reduce the risk of infection from public transport; I feel this could be mirrored elsewhere in the world.
• Work from home legal rights – Finland has already written the right to work from home into law and other countries are likely to follow.

How these trends are likely to shape the thinking of organisations and in particular the landscape within the recruitment industry:

• Homeworking as a competitive advantage – Increasing home working could be seen as a strategic move that makes a business more resilient and attracts and retains employees. This eradicates the importance of where an office is and a member of the teams is based. (within reason)
• Reduced contractor rates – Companies may seek to reduce contract rates where there is no travel costs or time (it would help if IR 35 was deferred for another year!)
• Increased contracting demand – Some companies may be required to access skills they may have decided to shed during the pandemic and bringing in key skilled workers could be increased.
• Strategic FTE recruitment - Clients that have sometimes struggled to find good permanent hires in a competitive market may be in a position to recruit these “hard to find candidates” and adopt a strategic approach. 
• Recruiters – Previously it could be tricky to engage with awesome tech talent as they are constantly busy in their demanding roles and would ignore the multiple emails or LinkedIn messages. Now, some may have time to reply, the number of messages have reduced and may be enticed to a forward-thinking organisation who are still recruiting and ploughing ahead with projects this portrays a desirable and attractive option.

To sum up:

Working from home doesn’t come easy and to most isn’t natural to embrace. Personally, I have found it tough! (Although having all my family at home at the same time may have contributed to this) Companies that really benefit will introduce some guidance around this and tips to remain focused and engaged.

Today we can’t use yesterday’s methods to survive and thrive in tomorrow’s world.

For anyone wishing to continue this conversation then please reach out a to me and I will send you (another) zoom invitation.

Thanks - Vas Constanti (20-year recruitment veteran!)