What Does Your Work-Life Look Like In A Post-COVID-19 World?

What Does Your Work-Life Look Like In A Post-COVID-19 World?

Although it will still be sometime before the curve flattens, it’s essential to look ahead and consider how the professional world will change as a result of COVID-19. The more you know now, the better prepared you will be.

To start, I’d just like to say that I hope everyone is healthy, safe, and doing their part to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Nonessential workers need to participate in social distancing and other measures that will help prevent further spread of the virus.

And while there’s plenty we can do right now to address the professional world’s challenges in adapting to remote work, I’d like to take this opportunity to look ahead and consider what the professional landscape will look like in a post-COVID-19 world.

The fact is that, to some degree, things will never be the same. There can’t be this unified and significant of a shift in the professional world without lasting effects.

More so than anywhere else, I believe this will happen in ways that concern business continuity. Whether this is the last pandemic we face in our lifetimes or not, COVID-19 has made it clear how unprepared we were for such an event. That’s why there will need to be contingencies to protect us against future disasters of a similar scale.

4 Ways COVID-19 Will Change The World

Here are the four key areas in which COVID-19 will have the greatest effect:

1. Hiring & Management: How you interview, manage, and support your employees will have to change.
   1. Hiring: In the future, when interviewing candidates for a position at your company, you’ll want to determine to what degree you can trust them in a remote environment. You’ll want to inquire as to their experience with a remote work environment. Ideally, they’ll be able to offer some form of KPI for self-management, detailing strategies, and best practices.
   2. Support: The benefits you offer may have to include underwriting greater bandwidth at home, as well as necessary devices and security solutions for remote work.As you’ve likely already noticed, a slow Internet connection at a staff member’s house or unsecured private devices can be extremely detrimental to your business as a whole. You’ll need to consider to what degree your company will invest in employees’ remote technology.
2. Government Regulation: If the world is to be able to operate remotely in the event of another pandemic or similar global event, government regulations will have to be modified to reflect that.Currently, in highly regulated industries like healthcare and education, compliance guidelines prohibit sharing or accessing specific private data (of patients and students) over online platforms, like Microsoft Teams. The government, at both a federal and state level, will need to reduce barriers to remote work.
3. Cloud Adoption: While the cloud has been a popular technology for years, nothing has prompted greater adoption of cloud-based technologies (Microsoft Office 365, G Suite, Zoom) as the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s likely that many businesses, once they have more time in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, will begin moving their data from an on-premise and hard copy setting to the cloud.Consider right now how much data is inaccessible to you because it’s stored on servers at the office, or in hard copy, filed away in cabinets – businesses will need to prioritize data access and management to be ready for the next global event that necessitates remote work.
4. Technological Preparation: The fact is that the majority of businesses weren’t ready for COVID-19. It spread quickly, with the situation changing day by day, and so, it’s understandable that many organizations scrambled to respond.They won’t have that excuse next time. To be ready, businesses will have to consider the following:
   1. Desktops vs. Mobile-Ready Devices: In a majority of cases, mobile and convenient laptops and tablets can do everything a desktop computer can – but you can take them home much more quickly. You’ll want to consider how your hardware fits into a work-from-home plan.
   2. Cybersecurity: Furthermore, company-owned devices can be safely set up with a Virtual Private Network ahead of time – that’s not the case with employee devices. The fact is that setting up a VPN from a private home network to your business is not secure and endangers your business.Furthermore, you’ll need to implement a 2-Factor Authentication solution. 2-factor authentication is a great way to add an extra layer of protection to the existing system and account logins. By requiring a second piece of information like a randomly-generated numerical code sent by text message, you’re able to make sure that the person using the login credentials is actually who they say they are. Biometrics like fingerprints, voice, or even iris scans are also options, as are physical objects like keycards.
   3. Unified Communication: Lastly, you’ll need a way to keep in touch with your staff, clients, and vendors. This calls for a unified communications solution, incorporating video meeting platforms like Microsoft Teams, as well as a VoIP or softphone business telephony solution for keeping in touch with vendors and clients.

The business world’s uncoordinated response to COVID-19 is understandable – nobody saw it coming. But now, there’s no excuse for when it happens next. You can’t assume it won’t happen to you – you need to prepare your business to switch to a remote work model at a moment’s notice.

Kyocera Intelligence is here to help. As a part of our Strategy Overview and vCIO services, we can support businesses in developing detailed and effective business continuity plans that cover remote work considerations.

Like this article? Check out the following blogs to learn more:

5 Tips for Successfully Working from Home

7 Necessities Before Sending Your Workforce Remote

Your 10-Point Checklist For Switching To A Remote Work Model