Friends, looking into current situation of the world, Corona pandemic has hit everyone and every business. Some countries which have imposed lockdown are slowly resuming normal activities. However, will the workplaces be the same as pre covid or they will be new normal? Lets discuss about how post covid workplaces would be. I am sure, you will also provide me feedback and your comments for this article.
Post Covid we need to consider about different factors for our new normal workplaces. Here are they could be.
Workplace location and connecting with others
The simplest word that I can say for these two months is that this was the "World's first and largest Work from Experiment". Particularly for people who are living in crowded cities of India, like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad, etc., Smaller home spaces , issues of internet, having multi-generation people at home, less attractive working desk or even non having work desk at all makes work from home difficult.
In any case, working remotely is a challenge. May be, employees will offer creative offerings of workpoints away from crowd. May be in post covid era, 1/3rd office places will be empty as every employee may get work from home for at least 2 days a week.
What will change
In the pre covid era, usually self employed or freelancers or start ups used to operate through co working spaces. In India, many popular coworking spaces like 91Springboard, We Work, Awfis, etc. are present in market since last couple of years. However, there is problem of "My Personal Desk" or "Me Space" in these spaces as they are little bit crowded according to some. Many co working spaces offered shared desks and meeting rooms too. Currently, We Works India offices are totally shut and rest other countries are less operational. However, co working companies have to change themselves in all sense. Post Covid co working spaces will face more challenge of attracting new customers and retaining already onboard. There was also news that Post Covid, business model of We Work will crash. However, nothing to worry about. Co working space owners have to design work places which follow social distancing rules. They might have to redesign the work desks. We may expect that there will be rise in interest of 1 person shielded pod type furniture settings instead of cubicle based or shared seating. They might have to reduce number of working desks and impose member capacity limitations. Companies will now encourage workforce to use own mouse and keyboard stored in personal locker and also will offer sanitizing wipes to clean workplace and equipment shared. To stop spread of infections, use of single AC units instead of centralized units will be more preferable. Also elevators will now have QR code based app to commute to floor on which you have office. Workplaces now will have to be more contactless than expected earlier.
Collaboration in teams and socialization
Now in post covid era, organizations have to consider health and well being of the workforce more. Due to which collaboration in teams will be more through online meeting platforms instead of physical meetings or face to face interactions. This is evident from rise in use of Zoom, We Chat, Whatsapp, FB messenger, Skype, Google Meet, and Microsoft teams. Instead of having LAN network in one single office and managing projects in this environment; companies will start moving to cloud based project management platforms.
Post Covid workplaces have to be right blend of fully open and fully enclosed which will accommodate human needs.
In the coming days, people will hesitate to attend team lunch or dinner or rather will avoid to go for parties or outing where there is crowd of more than 4 to 5 people.
Conclusion
Post Covid era is challenging and we must use our learnings from COVID. Use of personal hygine, cleaning workplaces regularly, use of etiquette of Namaste instead of handshakes, and also new normal way of work from home will be future of our workplaces and work culture.
Hope this Covid will end up its effect soon.
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Great information
Nice article. Keep it up.