As many nations present their plans to come out of lockdown safely, it strikes me that we should all use this opportunity – if you can call it that – to carefully evaluate some of the unforeseen consequences that Coronavirus has generated for some of us individually, organisationally, and for the wider environment. I don’t mean to downplay the devastatingly negative effects: grief, hardship, financial struggle, isolation... The death toll worldwide is simply too immense to comprehend.
In most countries, we are now entering a phase of re-opening – hopefully very gradual for everyone’s sake but necessary in order to kickstart a global economy in unprecedented crisis. As we do so, I wanted to share some thoughts as to the potentially positive lessons of this difficult period. It would be a disaster in itself if we just rushed to go back to the “old normal” that created so many professional, personal and environmental issues.
Work/Life Balance
Before the pandemic, work/life balance was branded by all as an ideal. Organisations said they aimed to deliver it for their employees but rarely went beyond lip service. Individuals strived to achieve it but rarely put together appropriate life plans.
Lockdown situations in most countries has forced many of us to organise ourselves awfully quickly and to design whatever schedule would allow us to work and care for our families. Home schooling has created (or re-created) special bonds with our children despite the numerous and often comical challenges it has generated. Even those without children (or with grown ones) have had more time to think about what’s important in their lives (hobbies, fitness, Netflix…) and organised their schedules accordingly.
Companies have also had to adjust, and employees have benefitted not just by being safe in this period, but simply by having more time to focus on their general well-being and to consciously compartmentalise personal and professional priorities.
I’d like to think we won’t lose the delicate balance we might have gained by simply going back to the old ways. Let’s keep in mind where true priorities lie as we gradually move towards our new normal.
Human Connections
Don’t we all miss the days where we could see whomever we wanted, whenever we wanted! Covid-19 has certainly had a devastating effect on our ability to meet with friends and family. I can’t help but wonder if we’d have chosen our last meet-ups more seriously if we’d have known they would indeed be the last ones for quite a while.
However, most of us have found new ways to connect with loved ones, more “consciously” than before. Goodness knows nothing replaces a proper hug, in my humble opinion… But I can see how people have naturally turned to whatever means they had to keep in touch virtually, often more so than they previously would have physically. We’re all naturally worried about how staying at home is affecting the more vulnerable amongst our close circle. So we’re asking “how are you?” more often, in a more authentic way as we do genuinely worry more in this difficult time. My WhatsApp inbox has never been so active and the quality of the messages seems to have more depth, more sincerity, more feeling.
I hope as we gradually go back to a more open society again, we keep the frequency and authenticity of positive communications, but add the “proper hugs” again whenever possible… and safe.
Environmental Considerations
This is a big one… And close to my heart. I love travelling – it’s been a passion of mine for decades. I admit I used and abused air travel to get to far-away destinations as often as work schedules and finances allowed. I’m sure many of you will identify with this. Work-wise, there was a time I enjoyed business trips too, but after having my son, I admit I saw the cons much more acutely than the pros. I also started to care more deeply about whether the reasons to travel for work were justified.
With Covid-19, the sudden halt in our ability to cross borders has generated a lot of anxiety: not being able to seek that ever-elusive winter sun (or snow), visiting relatives abroad. Saying that, the necessity to stay at home has led to more time to with family, cost savings to organisations, many health benefits as well.
The impact to the environment has been unprecedented too. It’s taken a global pandemic for governments to put measures in place that can actually curb climate change. The dramatic decrease in carbon emissions from air and car travel, as well as big industry, is helping the planet take one big, fresh breath.
I’m not suggesting we want to continue as is, but going back to the old normal would also strike me as a terrible shame. Now that organisations and individuals have learned new ways to cope with remote working (when possible), we should think of ways to limit commuting and business travel to a minimum. Let’s meet face-to-face when it really matters, and make it count. When travelling for pleasure, let’s mix foreign travel with holidays near home, to reduce our carbon footprint and promote local business too.
Time for industries worldwide to switch to cleaner sources of energy. The disruption might have seemed too great for some of them to consider this previously, but now that they’ve known disruption on a grand scale, surely they can take a step back and re-engineer processes that take too great a toll on the planet. A great initiative I wanted to highlight here is the EU Green Recovery Alliance, which financial services organisations have recently joined.
Customer and Employee Care
Organisations worldwide have professed to care for their staff and customers. For some of them, it wasn’t just a motto and they practiced what they preach through social responsibility programmes of various sorts. But did they spend enough time worrying about customer/employee needs and how to make their lives easier?
The pandemic seems to have been a trigger for caring just a little bit more for customers and employees. Whether this was put in place for fear of churning, or genuine empathy, we might never know. But there is now a real drive to help vulnerable communities, to find new and better ways to communicate, to re-design processes to protect staff and customers more effectively.
It’s been a real struggle for many brands to adjust to Covid-driven rules and regulations, but some of them have performed surprisingly well. Caring for the community is necessary in these drastic times, even just to avoid the negative backlash. All organisations should now focus on ensuring this becomes a natural, embedded part of their culture as we gradually re-enter some normality.
Your staff might hopefully be safe from Coronavirus, but you might want to look at other measures such as discouraging a culture of binge drinking and sugary snacks that are also likely to damage their health in the long term. Organisations need to take the learnings from this pandemic and start to really care… Not only because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it is likely to be expected by your customers and employees. And we know what happens when expectations change! You better keep up or you’ll be left behind.
Evaluating Performance
Despite the evolution of management techniques over the past few years, many organisations still focus on antiquated means of measuring performance. Punching time cards might be a thing of the past for most in the digital economy, but many bosses still spend far too much time watching the clock. Sometimes even more so when some flexibility is (finally) granted. Quantitative measures are also often applied even if they’ve been proven not to work. For many, it’s about keeping employees busy for their allotted time.
Then suddenly Coronavirus forced these organisations to trust their employees to do the right thing, focus on the right activities, perform better. Unfortunately some thought it wise to convert the gain in commute time to more video-conferencing than ever before – the need to stay in touch (and keep an eye on staff) being apparently more important than getting work done. Not the case for all of course, but the supervising mentality of old-fashioned managers hasn’t just magically gone away.
For forward-thinking organisations, a focus on (arguably) new ways of managing staff has helped to ensure the transition to lockdown resulted in better performance metrics than time, number of activities/meetings… Of course for many companies this was implemented much before we even heard of the C word (Coronavirus that is…). If that’s the case for you, that’s great news. If not, it’s time to focus on outcomes-based metrics if you want to avoid your employees burning out… or churning. And I don’t mean adding these new KPIs to the quantitative metrics you already have in place, or you’re going to have conflicting metrics – the very worse kind! This is especially important as so many are simply expected to juggle all sorts of priorities at home – let them have clear work priorities that will actually make a difference to the business.
And let’s continue with this mentality after the pandemic. Even if outcomes-based metrics don’t apply directly for some employees, there’s always a way to provide more focused ways to evaluate performance, with at least a direct line of sight to a wider business goal.
Digital Focus
Digital transformation entered business agendas years ago, so nothing new here. Most organisations have realised the benefits of providing an omnichannel experience to their customers, not only for their convenience but also because it made good business sense. Subscription-based businesses have also seen a boom in recent years as a more sustainable way to connect with customers and to provide them with ongoing support and services.
It’s been a lot harder for small businesses to adjust to the digital age. Many of them have been very successful at building great companies based on face-to-face interactions. Unfortunately Coronavirus has had a brutal effect on these companies. Hairdressers and nail salons for instance have faced a real struggle. Some have proceeded to focus of selling products online but it’s certainly not viable in the long term. For the leisure industry, like my beloved next-door pub, they have simply been banned from opening their doors but some have tried hard to maintain some level of activity.
For others, like boutique clothing or bespoke gift making companies, this pandemic might have been the push they need to get digital, or finalise their online selling strategy. Of course this isn’t the best time to expect massive increase in online sales – after all most of their customers (us!) are financially affected by the crisis and disposable income has either decreased or been invested in savings (or both).
But this is indeed a great time to focus on getting ready for the next phase. Prioritising digital channels, as social distancing is likely to be a reality for a little while, but also setting yourself up to deliver true omnichannel experiences in the long term.
Holistic Health
Just like work/life balance, reaching a holistic equilibrium between physical and mental health has been an ideal many of us have strived for. Work stress often generates insomnia, which leads to fatigue and more stress. Mad work schedules mean we sacrifice our fitness needs to the demands of our inbox.
With Coronavirus came a greater sense that we had to work out how to achieve a sense of holistic balance in our life or we’d simply go crazy. The ability to work remotely all day every day can easily lead to burnout. For some the gym was the place to achieve fitness goals, so when they closed, they found it hard to replace it with “simpler” ways. I’ve always favoured YouTube workout videos I can fit (no pun intended) into my schedule more easily – but I do find having a 5-year old around at all times does get in the way of my routine.
More importantly we’ve all had a sense that taking care of our mental health was equally critical to surviving the lockdown. Not only to face the demands of work encroaching on life, and vice versa, but also to cope with the absence of so much we took for granted: contact with friends and family, holidays, freedom! Many have turned to meditation and yoga to regain a sense of peace. Others have taken up new hobbies: knitting, baking, creating online tutorials in just about anything… Whatever it takes to calm our minds and find a way to control our lives when so much control has been relinquished.
I do hope this renewed sense that holistic health is critical to happiness will not go away with the gradual lifting of the restrictions. It would be easy to go back to our busy lives and ignore this pursuit. Truth be told, it will be much simpler to continue our efforts to reach a balanced physical/mental approach in the long term once the pandemic is controlled. As long as we don’t forget about it.
In conclusion
We’re all hoping to be entering a phase where liberties can be resumed without too great an impact on health and that dreaded R-rate. I can’t wait to book my next holiday, go back to the pub with my family, meet up with friends in trendy bars. But I also can't imagine simply returning to the same old bad habits... I highlighted some ways we might look at tackling some of them in this article, but others also deserve a mention: reducing waste for example, in this time of not-so-plentiful supply.
What if Coronavirus could somehow represent the turning point in climate change? A pandemic being at the origin of solving an environmental disaster! Could this possibly not be in vain? All the pain, heartache, grief and isolation... With the unintended but powerful consequence of finally making a difference!
I’m possibly being an idealist in this unique day and time, but in John Lennon’s words “I’m not the only one”. Great perspectives from all over the world are emerging – I recommend this article as an example and I’m sure you’ve read many others.
We’ve had to make more sacrifices in the past 2 months that we ever thought possible. Let’s make sure we look back in a decade and realise this pandemic didn’t just have a horrendous impact on human lives, it also brought about a new era focused on more authentic human connections, a deeper sense of balance in our lives at all levels, and greater care for our environment.
Contact me if you’d like some help figuring out the next steps in your marketing or customer loyalty programmes.
Comments