COVID-19

Out of its’ numerable impacts, COVID-19 has fundamentally transformed the ways people work and get businesses done. People forced to follow the mandates of social distancing in an attempt to avoid contacting the novel coronavirus while containing its spread, led to closed gates of industries and offices on a massive scale. Meanwhile, to cater to the demands of IT sector companies, there was a sudden boom in remote work or work from home. Subsequently, this further boosted dependency and hunger for cloud storage systems, VPNs, and robust cybersecurity plans. There was also a paradigm shift in viewing employees as an asset, reviewing of policies about employee benefits and work flexibility.

Amid the debate of reopening the office spaces, strategy plans to revive the gig economy, worries about the downturn, some new emerging trends shall change the way we view our work environment. And even if lockdown ceases, people will be resuming their office jobs; these trends will remain for a significant time.

Here are some of the key trends in business space we shall witness shortly:

  • Transition to Online: Often debated before, now due to COVID-19 forced lockdowns, this is turned into a new reality. Businesses and firms are currently working remotely from homes, conducting online conferences or board meetings via tools like Skype, Zoom, and most recent Google’s Meet. Even small-scale enterprises are now adopting digital tools like websites, newsletters, blogs, webinars, and making most of the cloud platforms like Amazon Web services, Azure, and others. Not only that, but brands are also now investing more in digital and online advertisements. According to a Gartner, analysis shows that 48% of employees will likely work at least part of the time after the COVID-19 pandemic remotely, compared to 30% pre-pandemic. Nearly 74% of CFOs intend to increase remote work at their organization after the outbreak.
  • Dramatic Drift in Hiring: Because of more number of people working from remote locations, the HR department will hire candidates with digital dexterity and digital collaboration skills. There are also chances that the hiring committee will look for hiring people based on requirements and available projects instead of hiring people on a full-time basis. Furthermore, with the more visible demarcation between critical roles and critical talents, job descriptions will now differ when looking for new potential employees.
  • Data Security plans: For a thriving remote work culture, companies need a smooth flow of data between the endpoints. Irrespective of its purpose, data is now valued as the gold of the digital world. Once an asset gains prominence, it also exposes itself as a new vulnerable target. With companies trying to back up everything using reliable cloud storage, cybercriminals are waiting to exploit the presence of such loopholes and lapses for a variety of reasons using spam-mails, phishing, and hacking. With organizational and location data being the most sensitive and valuable form of data, among others, government and business companies will search for options to secure the data using solutions that can be modified to meet the needs of their remote working employees. Moreover, companies will opt for a centralized data platform with secure remote access and enable interoperability.
  • Scanning for better opportunities: With new realized capabilities and benefits, candidates and employees may look for companies where there is clearly defined compensation support for mental wellbeing, rounded health care coverage, and financial aid in times of crisis like the current pandemic. In addition, companies are also investing slowly in establishing a more humanistic relation with the company’s workforce, diluting the top-down hierarchy, opting for a multiway approach in the work culture. This is crucial as new potential clients will be curious to learn about the company’s behavior towards the lower level employees during the pandemic, and this shall directly impact the market value of the brand.