‘Unprecedented times’ has been uttered repeatedly by Governments, Doctors and Scientists, Public Health Officials, Media Commentators and Business Leaders alike as the Coronavirus pandemic has swept the globe.
Unprecedented, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, describes the ‘never done or known before’. Yet a pandemic is not unprecedented. Only 100 years ago the Spanish Flu is estimated to have infected 500 million and killed 50 million worldwide. We’ve faced similar threats in more recent times, (for example Ebola), yet thankfully not with anywhere near the global impact of Covid19.
What is unprecedented is how this will affect the world of work. What is almost certainly ‘never known or done before’ is the new working environment in to which we will return.
The working from home genie is well and truly out of the bottle. Is hot-desking now a thing of the past? What about Co-working space? Will businesses that once sought office space for 500, now seek to house 300?
How will ideas pollenate across functions if I can’t grab that impromptu five minutes with Jo fro Marketing on my way to Pret? How do we prevent the inevitable silo’s that working from home will create?
How will we identify with a culture if we are not physically present to intuitively embrace it? How will the rise of the virtual meeting make up for the multitude of problems solved, issues raised or ideas kicked off at what was once the water cooler chat? What opportunities will be missed as a result?
How will organisations build culture in a new virtual world? Leadership teams are going to have come up with ever more innovative strategies to engage employees, attract, onboard and retain talent in the ‘new world’. Values will have to be ever more keenly lived to be fit for purpose in our new virtual age.
What will be the future of the commercial property model? What will the office of the future look like? Will it exist? How will that impact Pension Funds? Lenders?
Traditional bricks and mortar retail has been under enormous pressure for some time. As Consumers have become used to shopping from the sofa, what part will the store play?
Can any of us admit to feeling comfortable at the prospect of the rush hour sardine-tin returning? What about getting on a flight?
So many of our deeply entrenched working patterns, practices, assumptions and behaviours are going to be seriously tested over the coming months and years ahead. Some jobs will disappear entirely. New jobs that perhaps only months ago could not have been imagined (Social Distancing Ambassador?) will replace them.
Digitally savvy talent will be of a premium. It should have been already, but in reality was nowhere near the scale that the ever shifting sands were demanding pre the Tsunami of change bought about by Covid19.
The ability to innovate, think creatively, to problem solve, to deliver solutions will be as important as ever they were. Perhaps more so.
The decision to kick the IR35 can twelve months down the road looks, with the benefit of hindsight, a wise decision. Interim skill sets and a highly agile, flexible labour market will be crucial to the bounce back of the economy.
Shortlists will have to change. For the better. If businesses truly want to succeed, diversity of experience will be as crucial as gender and ethnicity to ensure the broadest range of input and perspective. Agile will be key. Speed will be of the essence. Those that are bold will thrive.
If you always do what you always did, chances are you won’t get what you always got. These are unprecedented times. Only those prepared to think openly, differently, digitally, virtually and most crucially of all, with humanity, will thrive.