Tag: pandemic telework

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Operations Following Lifted Pandemic Restrictions

Here we are, in the new world of the telecommuting future thanks to the impetus of the pandemic. Operations following lifted pandemic restrictions will include telework, flexible work hours, working from home, home office, coworking spaces, and turning to jobs online, all a part of the new normal, a metamorphosis in the workforce of the post-pandemic world.

Fortunately, all the necessary technology is readily available for employers to adapt to telecommuting and remote working as we ready to return to the new normal and beyond.

If your business or organization is not already remote-work-savvy now is the time to ready for the new digitally enhanced workplace following in the footsteps of other businesses and organizations that vow to never return to archaic pre-pandemic methods of operating their businesses.

Everything You Need is Here

Some of the first places to look for digitally upgrading your teleworking environment would include software to communicate with and monitor staff, applications for scheduling projects and task management, training programs, and security solutions.

The Top 10 Attributes of Post-pandemic Operations

1. Structure

Organizational structure is important to layout as early as possible for establishing hierarchy and accountability among the digital workforces. The better your structure is formatted, the more secure your remote workers will be adapting to the work from home model. Though, not all your personnel will be working from home. Some staff may still be coming into work, even if only for a day or two per week, then teleworking the remainder of the time. You will have to figure out what works best for your organizational structure.

2. Empower Staff

By empowering your staff to take responsibility for their own tasks, you add the necessary and most impactful component of flexibility to your team. This also relieves you from the responsibility of monitoring each and every employee. Take your attention off of the minute details and focus on the while, allowing each employee to manage themselves.

3. Communicate

Keeping the line of communications open is very important, and especially allowing and encouraging staff to reach out if they are feeling overwhelmed by any piece of the task at hand. Team chat tools can allow team members to stay in contact and report ideas to problem-solve on the fly.

4. Performance Evaluation

Performance evaluation in the new normal is conducted on a large-scale, then at several levels below by reviewing strategic Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to measure the overall performance of the organization, each team, and for problem-solving, each employee. All efforts can be traced to ensure the success of the organization.

5. Motivation

You might choose to use virtual boards to keep employees motivated (though these only work if everyone is on board, using, and regularly updating them).

6. Culture

The biggest organization-wide tele-employee advantage with the most impact on your overall performance is to establish a positive work culture. Working remotely should be a celebration of all the best attributes of an organization and its employees culminating in a joyous performance.

7. Empathetic Correction

Of course, there will be slumps in individual and team performance which will need to be addressed along the way but do so in a compassionate and empathetic manner. No one should ever feel like they are being punished or threatened by, “It’s my way or the highway,” which is considered barbaric in the current workforce marketplace.

8. Trust and Support

Employees perform better when they are able to accept their own responsibility within the most flexible parameters, and when they feel supported and trusted.

9. Non-work-related Socials

Digital non-work-related social events can help to take the edge off of staff which is feeling the pressure of being on lockdown resulting from a pandemic and executive restrictions. So, feel free to be creative and support Zoom meetings that are just for fun. Maybe a staff talent contest, show off your work-crib competition, fashion review, pet show, cooking show, or host an online karaoke show. Anything to take the edge off potential cabin fever or blues from isolation.

10. Affinity

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy,” so apply the “non-work-related” label as often as possible when reaching out to and communicating with your employees. The creates affinity among your organization and will put you miles ahead in employee retention.

 

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What are Businesses Doing to Thrive?

More than ever, independent businesses are struggling to continue to make a living amidst the pandemic lockdown as they are forced to find different ways to appeal to, interact with, and serve their clients and the world unimpeded by COVID restrictions.

Businesses are forced to learn how to communicate with clients in new ways as they are forced to stay home and stay safe, and employees are telecommuting and working from home, and jobs are shifting from in-house to online.

Unfortunately, if you thought the lockdown was temporary (remember, it was only going to be for a couple of weeks, then a couple of months, and now we are moving more toward a year), it turns out that the telecommuting business model is here to stay, so, if they are to have any hope of survival, must learn to adapt quickly, before suffering too much loss, leading to business failure, bankruptcy, never to return.

It is time to get creative and to take advantage of electronic forms of operating your businesses remotely and using all the tools which are being embraced by the survivors.

Businesses with less than 100 employees are at the highest risk and most likely not to survive attempted adaptations which would include new safety procedures, expanded revenue channels, alternative customer service methodologies, and delivery systems.

This leads to the growing majority of businesses to failure, yet others are surviving by evolving into the new normal of innovative operating businesses more remotely. How this will look following the pandemic, we have yet to see.

Millions of small businesses are fading to black, never to be seen again, due to being unable to persevere throughout the pandemic restrictions.

Of the survivors that have found ways to increase productivity and are enjoying even greater than pre-pandemic profits, what are they doing?

What are Businesses Doing to Thrive During the Pandemic?

Shifting to Online

Businesses are shifting from selling from showrooms to online marketplaces and live streaming sales. They are connecting to their customers via email and building relationships using every social media method possible.

Home Delivery

Delivering product or service directly to the homes of clients.

Empowering Staff

Empowering employees to expand their skillset and their value the organization by thinking outside the box and suggesting new solutions to problems as they arrive.

Evolving Business Models

Evolving the business model to adapt to new opportunities as they become available during the most challenging of times.

Remodeling

Remodeling retail, hospitality, and restaurant interiors to accommodate clientele and to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Embrace Technology

Embracing emerging technologies that increase communication, relationship value, and maximizing revenue streams.

Adaptive Interaction

It also means changing the way line staff interact with clientele, especially if face-to-face communication was an important component of your business model pre-pandemic and keeping staff and customers safe during the process.

Telecommuting, telenetworking, and telesales are the new standard.

While the coronavirus pandemic caught so many businesses off-guard, the majority of those that will be left standing post-pandemic will no doubt be unfazed by any future similar challenge.

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Pandemic Remote Work Statistics Not Good

No doubt many telecommuters are thriving during the pandemic. For the most part these are upper-income office workers whose jobs easily transitioned from the office environment to successfully working from home as they continue to enjoy all the benefits from doing so.

For the rest of the world, things are not looking as optimistic. There are rising rates of domestic violence, depression, suicidal ideation, and mental health services are hard-pressed to meet the growing demand for both remote workers and the increasingly unemployed Americans who are tasked with having to manage work (or lack of work) and surviving during unprecedented times.

Research is ongoing, as we try to get a handle on what we are up against as we all are trying to do our best under such challenging conditions.

As the statistics continue to come in, one research firm (The Martec Group) has provided results of a groups study that confirms, even among those who are telecommuting and working from home, there is growing cause for concern.

According to statistics

32% Pissed Off

The largest segment of teleworking employees (32%) report that they are hugely in opposition of the current work at home conditions. They don’t like working at home, and they think that their employers are not doing a very good job at making adequate arraignments not offering the support necessary to ensure a successful telecommuting environment.

27% Disgruntled

Then there are the employees that also do not like working at home, but they are not blaming their employers at all. As awkward and uncomfortable as it might be, they are of the mind that their employers are doing the best they can with what they have. These account for 27% of the group.

It is disconcerting, that the larger part of the group (59%) is not enjoying the remote working scenario whatsoever. And who would blame them? Who likes being forced to do anything that is outside their comfort zone? (No matter how you try to explain how fortunate they are to have a job.)

Then there are the employees who don’t hate working from home, are not crazy about it and wished they didn’t have to do it, but also think that their employers will come out of the pandemic in good shape (25%), and they believe they will be able to return to work under more normal conditions after the restrictions are lifted.

16% Love It

If you believe the media, you will think the largest segment of the pandemic telecommuters would be those who are enthusiastically celebrating their new life and freedom associated with working from home. But it turns out that only 16% are thriving as the result of working from home, and if given the opportunity to continue to do so would jump at the chance, even if it meant taking a slight pay cut.

84% Do Not Want to Work from Home

It is interesting to note the majority (84%) of these employees are not happy. Not only are they not happy, but they do not want to be working from home.

72% Growing Mental Health Concerns

They feel like they are being forced to work under undesirable conditions, and 72% of them reported growing mental health concerns.

I think we could do better.

 

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Before You Quit Your Job for Your Family

Remember when you were first “invited” to work from home? No more commuting back and forth from work which meant more quality time for you and your family, the flexible hours, backing all the cash that you saved from not having to commute or that you were paying for designer coffee and lunch? Remember how sweet it was?

Not long after the initial elation and celebration of being able to be that master of your own destiny, the reality of it all hit, hard. While it was entertaining during online videoconferencing to see your coworker’s toddler tapping him on the shoulder and proclaiming, “Daddy, I need a wipe,” or your cats running up the drapery backdrop which comes crashing down to reveal the fact that there was no window behind the drapes of your video telework set, the fact was, it turns out this working from home environment was not all it was cracked up to be.

If you had become accustomed to having a break from your family during the day, well, those days are long gone, and no one would blame you for yearning for things to return to some semblance of normalcy, or to consider quitting your job to tend to your family.

Families who are restricted to being indoors for the most part, with one or more adults telecommuting, kids attending school from home, and local businesses closed (some restricted from opening, and others gone, forever), are paying an incredible cost, and many working women are feeling the pressure to resign to try to keep their family from falling apart.

Before You Quit Your Job for Your Family

Teenagers are easy enough to incentivize if you can provide them with a large able and Internet package, and a debit card to use for shopping on Amazon in exchange for pitching in with the household chores, but even they are starting to go a bit stir crazy. You can only expect these energetic young men and women to agree to a willful lockdown for so long.

The youngest children are the ones that are the neediest, and there is little relief in sight.

What can you do when things start going crazy at home?

Be Honest and Open

Before declaring, “this is just too much,” throwing in the towel, or giving your two-weeks’ notice, reach out to your employer and colleagues, and let them know that your frustrations are a growing concern.

You will be surprised at how they will be willing to show compassion during these unprecedented times. Many of them are having the same kinds of problems and they are ready and willing to help you with solutions that will relieve some of your stress.

There is nothing to fear for being vulnerable and transparent when the going gets rough.

Establish Family Boundaries

We are all doing the best we can to make it through this pandemic. Granted, we are all under more pressure than we could reasonably expect to ask of someone. But having a serious sit-down and pep-talk with the family and getting buy-in on the idea that we all want to survive this chaos, you can get family members to agree to help, and you can set boundaries that will increase your ability to continue to work from home more effectively when duty calls.

Childcare

Granted, the daycares are shut down, but that doesn’t mean that asking friends or family to help babysit periodically is out of the question. Even during the pandemic, you can find people who will be willing to don PPE for a few hours a day to help relieve you from some of the stress of balancing parenting with working from home.

Time Managing Chores and Activities

Save and manage delegating chores to those times that you know you are going to be called on to “be there” for your employer for certain periods of time. Give the kids projects that they can do online, or even via (educational?) television. Arts and crafts can be used to get kids to focus while you are conducting a Zoom meeting.

Many working women are feeling like they have to make the decision between work and family, and no one would judge you for choosing your family, but give it some more thought before you withdraw from your work or online job, because it may be more difficult to reenter the remote workplace once you’ve taken a family sabbatical.

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Is Pandemic Teleworking a Corporate Conspiracy?

Under the veil of the current COVID-19 pandemic and lingering restrictions and lockdown, corporations have been able to survive by converting operations to telecommuting and moving jobs online to huge benefit to the corporations and first reports seem to indicate that the workers see the conversion as advantageous as well. Is pandemic teleworking a corporate conspiracy?

While there was a growing interest in telecommuting across the nation, there was a growth-spurt which caught on in the shadow of 9/11 promoted by the government, and other industries took note of how important it might be to have staff that could work from home in the event of any disaster, terrorist threat, or pandemic.

Some organizations rejected the idea of enabling staff to telecommute or work from home out of fear. Fear that the working class could not be trusted. These employers and managers feel like they have to micromanage every step their employees take, suspicious that any employee will do as little as possible or nothing at all if they can get away with it and still receive pay.

Then comes the coronavirus outbreak and even the most resistant businesses are faced with hard and fast choices. Do you give up and close your business or quickly find a way to embrace telecommuting to survive? Do you shut down your factory or crowd manufacture?

And those who were resistant to moving jobs online because they could not adequately monitor their staff for fear of slacking off or having employees that would exploit the employer or corporation, new industries sprang to life to meet their concerns and leaving the staff asking the question, “Is your employer spying on you?” and indeed, they are spying on their employees to varying degrees thanks to remote monitoring technologies.

Other technologies experienced growth to meet the need of this expansive growth in telework across the United States, such as videoconferencing, Zoom, and VPN connectivity.

For the other employers and corporations who were already leaning in the direction of telecommuting, the transition was nearly seamless, and this forced experiment delivered staggering results for the corporate number crunchers. The pandemic work from home workforce increased productivity, at huge savings in overhead for the corporations.

It makes you wonder, is there some other purpose at work here, to force people to work from home?

This pandemic lockdown has benefited the ecology of our world amazingly. Mother Earth has not been in such good shape since the industrial revolution, she is healing from the damage we have caused her, right now.

Corporations are more profitable by not having to cater to on-site workforces.

There is a dark side to teleworking which is emerging, but new technologies are emerging to deal with any shortcomings that might be associated with the work-from-homers.

And factories which cannot embrace a crowd manufacturing model, some of them are investing in housing near the factory, hotels, or apartment buildings to accommodate manual laborers which have not been replaced by automation or mechanization.

Is Pandemic Teleworking a Corporate Conspiracy?

Following this pandemic, many corporations and employers will continue to operate remotely, and they are already releasing leases, selling off, or repurposing properties that were necessary to support on-site workers.

Who are the Top 10 beneficiaries of huge financial growth during the pandemic?

1. Amazon.com
2. eBay Inc.
3. Apple
4. Netflix
5. Alphabet
6. FedEx Corp.
7. United Parcel Service
8. Microsoft Corp.
9. Facebook
10. Zoom

What does the Top 10 COVID profiteers say about the current condition if we follow the money? Is there more going on here than meets the eye?

What does the future hold?

What will the workforce look like post-pandemic?

Are we turning into a society of caged slave labor for increased profit?

Or are we being prepared for new advances in societal living, like The Venus Project?