It looks like there will be a major shift in how we do things as we work through this pandemic. Here are some thoughts and things that businesses should think about and start to modify their process to stay ahead of the curve.

Work

• The open office concept that has been the craze for the last few decades will have to adapt. Businesses should look at putting some clear glass/plastic partitions to protect their employees.
• Work from Home. You have been forced to pilot work from home whether senior leadership supported it or not. Now it will be up to you to put a WFH strategy that will meet the needs of your employees. Your goal should be to get those that enjoy working from home, continue to do so. There will be those that do not like working from home and want to commute to the office. This will be an opportunity to also give these employees an opportunity to have them come in to work. The one thing that you have to keep in mind so that you don’t lose some great potential talent working from home, is not to reward face to face interaction. In other words, don’t assign projects to people you see in the office just because it’s easy and they are there. Make sure that your scorecards are strong so that you reward based on performance no matter where they are working from.
• As technology continues to evolve, WFH will become the norm. Get your IT, HR, Training, Operations and Marketing team involved in preparing for this transition that is bound to happen.

Retail

It’s obvious but consumers are also doing a lot of online shopping while they are staying at home. This will continue as they will have become more online shopping savvy, even though deliveries are taking longer than usual. However, once things get back to normal and speed of delivery is optimized, consumers are just going to love it. So push your brick and mortar products onto the web in order to compete for market share.

In addition consumers are going to be buying in bulk more out of habit that they have formed during COVID.

The future

Things will change. There will be drastic changes in customer buying patterns, sentiments and how they interact with you. Your organization has to continue to measure and keep the pulse on how your customers are perceiving their moments of truth with your organization. You have to look at how you can efficiently deliver on their new expectations through AI and automation so that you can protect your bottom line. Process re-engineering will also be key in this new reality.

Don’t become complacent and think that you could just wish it away. Action is critical to stay ahead of the game.