The Future of Work After COVID-19
/Opportunity For Sustainable JC Folks To Consider Job Market Trends With First Of Short Series On Future Of Work And Acquiring New Tech Skills As We Transition In The Age Of COVID !
Submitted by Artur Meyster, Guest Blogger / Founder of Career Karma
COVID-19 changed our world four months ago after the WHO (World Health Organization) declared it a pandemic. Governments started implementing quarantine measures to control its spread, but these measures left many companies floundering to keep their operations afloat. A vaccine isn’t a reality yet, and many people believe we will not get back to normal until an effective one is developed.
However, after months of social distancing and staying at home, some countries are already relaxing some of the regulations in an effort to salvage the economy. And companies are redesigning the workplace to fit a world with COVID-19.
Below are some of the changes we will see in the new work environment.
Distributed Spaces
In the past few years, it was common to find offices that had as many people possible comfortably working in the same space. This distribution of areas was designed to foster collaboration and communication. But after COVID-19, this will be left in the past and instead, we will start seeing distributed spaces.
Distributed spaces will be smaller offices in locations closer to the employee’s home. With these smaller, distributed offices, workers will not only have less risk of infection while commuting, but the whole team won’t need to be quarantined if one of them gets infected. So the team will be able to collaborate, but in smaller groups.
Rotating Workdays
Another option to minimize contact in the workplace is to rotate working days in the office. First, managers will pinpoint which employees need to come back to the office and are able to do so. Then create a schedule for which people can go to the office each day and which persons need to work together on the same day, and so on would be the way to go.
This rotating work schedule may sound unnecessary and a lot of work if employees can work from home, but many companies don’t have that luxury. Some businesses need their employees physically at the office for essential tasks, but rethinking this may create options not thought of before that could save time and money, and provide other workaround benefits for businesses and workers.
Hospital-Like Elements
After COVID-19, people are now more aware of sanitation and possible infectious points more than ever, e.g., many questions have arisen as simple as whether to touch a surface or a door when going out in the past few months, and are now applicable to workplace settings.
Many people may not know this, but hospitals use unique materials on walls, floors and furniture that can withstand strong cleaning products. Companies will start designing office spaces using hospital-like elements and materials so they can be continuously sterilized.
Not only will the cleaning increase, but business environments will probably also include disinfection strategies. These strategies will likely include wash stations for cleaning hands, constant use of antibacterial solutions and even air purification systems.
IoT Office Space
The Internet of Things (IoT) is about both smart devices that can be connected between themselves and with the Internet to access data and to control transactions. There are already many of these devices used in day-to-day home activities. For example, smart TVs that allow you to control the lights in your house or mobile apps that can connect to your smart fridge.
We will be seeing something similar at our workplaces, for example being able to control different things using smartphones like workers calling the elevator, opening doors or making coffee and more at business premises.. With these smart solutions, employees could avoid contact with contaminated surfaces.
Home Office
Since COVID-19 became a pandemic, many companies have changed to home office modalities. It was in an effort to maintain the business while reducing the possibility of infection. But now, with some of the quarantined measures being lifted, many companies aren’t rushing back to the office.
The fact is, home offices have many potential cost-effective benefits and perks, depending on the employee. The first and topmost consideration is that it could be less costly for the company to help an employee set up a home office than redesigning current business or office workspaces. But other benefits include the potential for more productive and happy workers too!
However, not all employees are best suited for working from home. But your company could choose to implement a hybrid solution with some people working remotely and others working at the office or other business location. It reduces possible environmental issues regarding spreading infections and allows working comfortably from home for employees that prefer that option.
Daily Health Checks
Daily health checks are another potential change for post-pandemic work environments. In some countries, people already get their temperature checked before being allowed to enter any public establishments. It will be something similar for the workplace, things like temperature cameras that check all the employees for fever could be implemented.
These health checks will also include sending the employee home if they show slight symptoms of sickness and workplaces having more flexible sick leave policies all around.
Emphasis on Health Education
In many companies, health education was an afterthought unless it was related to direct security hazards at the workplace. But now, with the pandemic, employees, especially the ones returning to physical workplaces and offices, need to be aware of all possible health risks of the COVID-19 disease.
By knowing precisely what the risks are, they can accept those risks to return to work or not. Also, it’s the company’s prerogative to teach it’s employees of the preventive measures they have to take and the correct way to work in the new environments. So, constant health education to remind them to protect themselves will become standard.
Use of Protective Gear
The use of protective gear will also become standard and not only at the workplace. This measure doesn’t mean complete body gear, maybe just in specific industries that required it. But most people will have to start using at least mouth caps / face masks to protect themselves and their coworkers.
Increase e-Learning
Many companies offer career development benefits for their workers, and they don’t need to stop due to the pandemic. Instead, they can go for e-learning sources. Many online education platforms offer courses for anything, from soft to tech skills. Even coding boot camps have online learning options for people that want to learn programming skills.
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