Are we on the cusp of a return to normality?

Ongoing debate around the long-term sustainability of remote working is well documented and it seems that everyone has their own viewpoint and position on the discussion.

Speaking with customers over the last few weeks, we have heard and documented a range of these opinions without observing a clear or overwhelming lean in one direction, although it has to be said that the overall sense we get is that the concept of remote working is very much here to stay. Covid-19 made it a necessary practise for many to adapt to yet if we look beyond the pandemic, post-vaccine, can we ever really imagine gridlocked streets & hordes of commuters packing themselves once again into congested trains, buses and underground stations in a frenzied mass-movement?

Perhaps the biggest (negative) effect on the remote workforce has been the impact on mental health and well-being. This period has seen a proliferation of self-help apps and platforms which focus on meditation practises and useful coping mechanisms.

We hear of employees coping admirably by ‘knuckling down’ and ‘just getting on with it’ in the only ways they realistically can. The lack of human interaction and face-to-face contact has been a frequent complaint some of our clients in HR positions have reported. So much appears to have been lost from water cooler small talk, rapport building, relationship building (particularly from a new business development perspective) and the spark of creativity and innovation which arguably is more likely to happen when you sitting within a group of colleagues.

Childcare issues, further complicated by the enforced closure of schools has caused considerable strain on both working parents and their children alike. Whilst we must be hugely grateful for the technological capabilities at our disposal, there is surely a limit to the novelty factor afforded by online learning, virtual classrooms and endless Zoom meetings. Indeed, some have highlighted that whilst we they have witnessed efficiency gains in some areas, in others we have actually become less efficient. For example, simple discussions or tasks that would normally have been taken care of by wandering over to someone’s desk might now take place via video meetings, rendering the whole idea of speed and efficiency null and void at a stroke.

So how do we reduce those superfluous conversations? How might we go about trimming down the excessive meetings for meetings’ sake? I think the answer is to take things back to basics. We only have to remember what remarkable technology we have in our hands. It is entirely possible to delegate a series of tasks to your team in Europe at the touch of a button, allocate users licenses to your entire workforce on the latest SaaS platform by the same method and to gather (virtually at any rate) your entire workforce for an all-hands meeting on the screen in front of you, wherever they are in the world with consummate ease.

It is staggering to think of the possibilities, but even more staggering when you consider that we then take those tools and go onto to needlessly overcomplicate things. Just keep it simple, always ??

Have a great day.