What’s Next? Hygiene After Covid-19

While some organizations are preparing for near-term survival, many others are looking through the uncertainty, thinking about how to continue and bring things to normal once the crisis has passed. The question is, What will normal look like? Since the 1918 influenza pandemic, never have so many people been affected by a viral outbreak and never has the connection between good hygiene, health and well-being been more apparent.

To prevent the collapse of national healthcare systems, governments across the globe adopted drastic containment measures in March and April, strictly limiting people’s movements and introducing social distancing rules. The endeavour successfully resulted in flattening the curve and slowing the spread of the virus. Yet, while restrictions are gradually being lifted, it will be a long way in many parts of the world before things return to the way it was before. The need of the hour is to maintain a pioneering spirit to adapt to this changing landscape and embrace the New Normal. The fact is, the New Normal is fluid and it is up to each of us as to how we choose to adapt.

What’s Next?

As we adjust to a new reality of social distancing, wearing masks and working from home, it is important that we keep health and well-being at the forefront of our minds – more importantly at the workplace. Our culture at Essity is deeply rooted in collaborating and caring for each other. This might sound quite difficult especially when our employees have been working remotely from their homes. I saw over the past weeks, extraordinary ways of working and innovative solutions to manage unique challenges. A pulse survey in our team and business unit confirmed that ingenuity, flexibility, openness and great team spirit are the biggest factors leading to resilience.

As we are moving into the next phase of the pandemic, it is crucial that we do not jeopardize what we have achieved so far. Hygiene is our business and Essity has an important role to play to improve hygiene and health standards across the globe. This might mean adapting our offerings to the changes in shopper and consumer behaviour: more hygiene products are needed in households; wet wipes can provide hygiene on-the-go and more people will use paper towels to avoid touching and for cleaning surfaces. And in all these changes, product innovations will continue and defining more sustainable solutions will remain the core focus for us at Essity.

While it is impossible to predict the full impact of Covid-19, there can be no doubt that the crisis will have far-reaching implications for people, the economy and society as a whole. As Steven Taylor, clinical psychologist and author of The Psychology of Pandemics, puts it, the Covid-19 pandemic “will have profound psychological effects on the people living through it.”

The crisis has put things we take for granted into perspective. It has taught us to be adaptable and to remain agile in all parts of the value chain. And most of all, it has also taught us that hygiene, health and well-being are the essentials for everyone’s life.

Stay positive, safe, and healthy!