4 considerations for transitioning your business out of lockdown

It’s been a long time – over a year- since we have all had to adjust to the ‘new normal’ and now that everyone is fully equipped to work from home, another change is on the horizon. So, it’s important for business owners to truly consider what type of work environment and strategy is actually best for the business and its employees.

Here is some insight into predicted trends and considerations as we slowly come out of lockdown: 

Will you go back to a 9-5 day in the office?

Productivity has surely changed for many workers with the work from home orders. The typical 9-5 business day boundaries have likely become blurred for many – some may find themselves finding it hard to separate home tasks from work tasks and more people are responding to emails outside of traditional working hours.

Ask yourself, and your employees, what works best for everyone? Do you miss brainstorming sessions and having meetings in person, or do you feel like being at home allows you to be more productive by being able to focus on single tasks in the comfort of your preferred environment?

A recent study found that more than 20 percent of the global workforce could work the majority of their time at home and still be just as effective.

Many business owners are considering new ways of structuring the work day and seeing benefits of saving on costs of renting out office space. There are also more new options for ‘hot desking’ or booking meetings in COVID-safe spaces.

Yet, years of life spent in the office makes it a hard habit to break. If you do plan to go back to the office once it is safe to do so, it probably won’t just be the case of reopening the doors and heading to work. Workplace designs might need to change to have more space between desks, safer kitchen policies, etc. Plus, new work habits and technologies may need to be implemented – for example, if many client meetings will still be over Zoom calls, how will that work in your office when it’s full of employees again?

We are interested to see how businesses plan to readjust to yet another new normal.

Do you think Zoom is here to stay?

The way in which B2B businesses interact with their clients changed dramatically with the surge in use of video meeting platforms like Zoom and Microsoft Teams. Many of us experienced ‘Zoom fatigue,’ but studies also show that now that people are able to gather for in-person meetings, it is sparking anxiety for many who haven’t really left the house in a year.

It’s important that business owners take these steps with empathy and don’t expect their clients or employees to be able to endure a full week of face-to-face meetings after all this time. Slowly ease back into social interaction to allow everyone time to readjust.

Many business owners will also have noticed the benefit of saving time, money and resource on business travel. While it’s often nice to meet new clients in person, most of us are now comfortable with Zoom calls which allow for more productivity and keeping unnecessary costs down.

Consider the challenges of having a hybrid staff

If you are planning to give your employees the option of flexible working, it will be important to consider how that will impact on the wellbeing and structure of your team.

A recent study found that about 38% of people working from home over the last year didn’t receive a bonus, and that remote workers were 50% less likely to be promoted. The lack of visibility with working from home may mean that management doesn’t fully understand the value of the employee and/or realise how much (or little) their employees are working. It’s important to take the time to check in with your team and also to keep standard work procedures like annual reviews in place.

What’s going to happen with holidays?

First of all, have you made sure that your employees have taken their holidays this year? With blurred lines of home working and no where to go, many workers haven’t really benefited from time off work this year. Check into this and put systems in place to ensure workers are getting the time off that they deserve.

It’s also going to be challenging to balance workloads when everything reopens and travel resumes – it might be worth putting some contingency plans in place to allow people to take their holidays whilst also ensuring business continuity in this strange time.

As the business world changes once again, it will be interesting to see what the ‘next normal’ will look like for B2B organisations. Let us know your plans and thoughts on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter!