Last week saw concerning developments across the globe with COVID-19 spreading to over 100 000 people and many governments, including our own, beginning to prepare for the very real scenario of a large percentage of Australia’s workforce requiring to self-isolate at home.
Flexible and remote working is still far from being a normal practice across many office-based businesses in Australia, however, we could be about to see a major and urgent shift depending on the spread of the virus.
Businesses may soon require employees to stay home for quarantine purposes, and school and childcare centres may close, meaning many parents will have no choice but to stay at home. The need for businesses to prioritise business continuity and introduce or act on flexible and remote working policies may become an unavoidable necessity to continue to operate successfully in the coming months if not weeks.
Collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams are expected to generate additional interest over the coming weeks as businesses look to mitigate the flow-on effects of COVID-19. Tools like Teams allow businesses and organisations to overcome challenges such as working with staff that aren’t physically able to be in an office with them, yet still facilitating effective utilisation of their staff and enabling an important part of their business continuity.
Whilst COVID-19, for the most part, will be remembered for the global impact it will have on our economies, health systems and basic day to day functions, it may also be remembered for the impact it has on measuring employee success. Employers may begin to embrace the measurement of employee and team output, rather than the time physically spent in an office. The necessity to utilise collaboration tools in order to remain in business may ultimately be remembered by many as the time businesses and organisations truly began their transitions into the Modern Workplace.
This transition will come with many benefits. The need for domestic and international travel will reduce as meetings become virtualised – this will positively impact not only our financial outlays, but will reduce our carbon footprints, and increase employee wellbeing, not to mention help to contribute towards slowing the spread of COVID-19. The reliance on physical infrastructure will also reduce as businesses move their applications to the cloud, again reducing the financial burden of updating costly infrastructure while reducing our carbon footprints.
Activating your business continuity plans won’t always be as simple as reading over a document, however not reviewing and understanding what it will take for your business or organisation to continue to operate (should Australia need to follow the suit of other countries) may ultimately end up much more difficult.
Centrered is ready to assist you now and has several collaboration solutions available to you to help you prepare for what may just be around the corner.
If you would like to learn more, get in touch with us today.