Enterprise leaders acknowledge that as the IT industry tries to define a post-pandemic new normal clearly, the work from home model is destined to stay for a long time
As the world moves forward in 2021, experienced leaders reanalyze the lessons learned over the last twelve months due to the pandemic. As much as everyone wishes to return to normal routine lives as global and local restrictions start to decrease, remote work will not be disappearing any time soon.
Business leaders are faced with making difficult decisions regarding when the workplaces should open and how they can ensure that the visitors and employees are returning to a safe and secure environment.
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CIOs say that as vaccine rollout has only begun across the world, most enterprises are offering their employees the choice to their workplace only if they wish to and feel it’s safe.
One such safety measure is implementing contact tracing- making sure that any person entering the building is identified with a badge or an ID, so when a visitor or employee is diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus, any person who comes in contact with the patient can be identified and notified.
Business leaders play a significant role in keeping the clients and employees safe on-site, and they have both the ability and resources to ensure that large-scale contact tracing becomes an effective reality. As enterprises move forward to the new normal, new solutions being implemented for workplace safety needs to be developed for the long term and deeply embedded in the business processes.
CIOs point out that when the lockdown first came into effect across the world in early 2020, most organizations expected work from home rules to last as long as it has. Now, nearly 12 months later, most of the enterprises still have the majority of their employees still working out of remote locations and it’s quite clear that the pattern will continue for quite some time into the new normal.
The shift to the remote work model has transformed the expectations of the employees. When on-premises offices finally open, employees will require continued flexibility in their workplace. To resolve and address the expectations, leaders will be required to combine remote work options with every task that is done. Instead of going back to an office-centric mindset, it is important to bring forward flexible remote work policies that attract and retain the best talent. It plays a major role in supporting business growth and continuity.
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Leaders acknowledge that taking a flexible method to remote work ensures extending enterprise-grade support to the homes of employees that matches the expected scale of quality support that employees generally receive at the office.
IT leaders should consider domestic workstations as the latest enterprise micro branch. Often family members and other members in the house will also share the same network as the employees to complete their work.
To support their employees, IT teams need to continue prioritizing keeping workflows in place to keep employees productive and secure, regardless of their location.
Megana Natarajan is a Global News Correspondent with OnDOt Media. She has experience in content creation and has previously created content for agriculture, travel, fashion, energy and markets. She has 3.9 years’ experience as a SAP consultant and is an Engineering graduate.
