Emergency situations call for hasty decisions that are aimed at getting positive results. In recent times, the coronavirus pandemic happens to be one of the never-before-seen circumstances threatening the future of work. Talk about the year 2020, and the first thing that will come to people’s minds will be the year of the coronavirus pandemic breakout. The year everything humanity has ever done was given a rethink. From interpersonal relationships to organisational structure, the world has been forced to look at newer ways to get things done. Coordination of Tasks and Assignments remains the core of every organisation; therefore, they are doing everything within their power to keep business activities running smoothly, even if it means having to introduce the working from home (WFH) policy. The pandemic has given rise to the switch from the traditional work environment to the digital space.
Even though the WHF policy is not a new phenomenon amongst businesses around the world, many businesses are yet to subscribe to the practice. In a shocking move of surprise, one of the biggest email companies in the world, Yahoo, banned the practice in the year 2013, causing a media firestorm over the justification of this move. A survey shows the response rate of organisations and individuals to the outbreak of the virus in the United States. While some still maintained the traditional operation mode, some followed the new remote flexibility, while some have laid staff off due to low business activity.
With the virus disrupting the modus operandi of businesses across the world, things are slowly taking shape towards flexibility. It is aimed at affecting productivity remotely, making sure there is no hindrance to the organizational structure. Remote working has been found to favor companies that have affected the policy, and a perfect example of such companies include Ctrip and U.S. Patent & Trade Office (USPTO). Effectively, the pandemic has helped a lot of other organizations shift from the traditional workspace to a more mobile-friendly workspace across the web. The management of the organisation’s procedures is done remotely over a VPN, which protects the company’s data. VPN also helps to safeguard company files against breach from the public; it is therefore structured to give access to only authorized users.
Companies should consider the extent to which they are willing to organize their schedule within a remote working space. Apart from working from home practice, there is the working from anywhere option, which allows companies to employ workers without the barrier of geography. The advantage of the remote work practice is that it helps companies to cut their budget on rent and other miscellaneous spending, and it helps workers reach the highest psychological altitude to help them work effectively. Ctrip had to bring down their running cost and therefore had to develop the model, which eventually turned out to be effectively efficient in the response from the remote unit.
A lot of tools have been developed to help get remote working to perfection. The recent splurge in the popularity of the Zoom conferencing call, the development of Whatsapp multiple video call participant feature, and the development of Google’s Meet application are as a result of the need to create a virtual environment where people could connect and organize meetings. These Tools are part of the productivity tools developed by different companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Office in order to help organizations micromanage their documents and also give multiple users the chance to work on the same document at a time. Because of their distinctive features, the tools are divided into conferencing and productivity tools. To effectively operate in situations like the coronavirus pandemic, it is advisable that companies adopt measures that will help them transition smoothly to the more flexible side of the business running.
Conclusion:
The effects of shifting to a more flexible workspace cannot be fully ascertained yet, but it is a necessary measure to help organisations transition easily during unforeseen situations. It is another sure way that governments around the world can adopt to help maintain their economy, unlike the preparation of governments around the world for the coronavirus outbreak. A stable business environment is a stable economy that guarantees that workers are always on the job. Talk about the laws of social distancing, or a total lockdown, the world will effectively proffer solution(s) to many unanswered questions currently on the lips of skeptics.
Featured photo Daria Shevtsova, Pexels
