The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has seen all businesses, save for essential and Alert Level 4 permitted businesses sending their employees home to work, in an effort to practice social distancing and lessen the impact of the virus.
Whilst remote working can be effective on multiple levels in that it ensures that employees are safe and productive and transforms businesses by equipping them with resilient and adaptive ways to engage with their stakeholders and deliver economic value, it is not without its hurdles and challenges.
These affect us from different perspectives, including the company in terms of making the appropriate decision from an investment or efficiency point of view.
The feeling I get from conversations with industry professionals is that we are ill-prepared for the knock-on effect of the coronavirus pandemic, including the new “black” being the working from home concept and the scaling down of office attendance requirements, a reduction in work forces, and resources, limitations on travel and the ultimate consequence, the collapse and closure of businesses, which all in turn will have and will continue to trigger drastic economic and related social consequences.
Despite the challenges, and notwithstanding the frustrations, all of us need to accept that this is how we will be conducting our business for the foreseeable future.
Unless we want to sink and give effect to these drastic consequences, all of us need to pull on our armbands; start treading water; jump into the life boats; dig the oars in – whatever the case, we all need to start turning the cogs and wheels that drive our economy and ensure that they are kept going, no matter the challenges.
Its either sink… or swim.