Work after the pandemic: how companies are adapting

Several companies are taking steps to adapt to the work after the pandemic and receiving employees with reduced risk of contagion, now that municipal and state rules have been relaxed.

See the results of the research carried out by Robert Half and understand how this flexibility can be applied by companies.

How will work after the pandemic in the office

In the era of work after the pandemic, the main change will be the practice of home office more often. That was what 89% of respondents responded to Robert Half, a recruitment company that conducted a survey of 353 executives from Brazil between May and June, to understand what the main measures that companies are taking at the moment.

An interesting data shown by the survey is that 62% of the executives were positively surprised by the delivery capacity of their employees and teams in the remote work during the pandemic. Only 10% noticed a negative change and 28% did not observe a difference.

Fernando Mantovani, general director of Robert Half, believes that people who work in functions eligible for remote work will have more flexibility, especially while there is still some risk of contagion.

“However, it will only be possible to understand whether this new work model will really be incorporated into the company’s culture when it is possible to freely choose between working remotely or not,” he says.

Fewer meetings and scheduled times in post-pandemic work

Other data pointed out by the study are:

• 85% will guide employees to wear a mask in the office;
• 78% must establish new cleaning protocols;
• 73% of the interviewed managers intend to have fewer meetings and face-to-face training;
• 59% intend to schedule employees’ working hours and change the layout of the office.

Concern with mental health of professionals

Another concern of executives is in relation to the mental health and well-being of employees as they begin to return to the office.

To mitigate possible negative effects, the main initiatives identified are:

• Use of video conferencing to allow top management to convey empathy and trust to employees (64%);
• Discourage or limit overtime so that employees can maintain a good management of their personal-professional life (49%);
• Benefits for physical and mental health, such as well-being in the workplace, yoga classes, mindfulness and resilience programs (48%).

Executives debuting on communication platforms

The survey also showed that 65% of executives used some communication and collaboration platforms to hold remote meetings for the first time during the Covid-19 pandemic, such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Skype and Zoom.

The main benefits pointed out by the use of these technologies were: the ability to work more flexibly / remotely (90%) and better communication and collaboration between teams (54%).

Observing the results of the research and the initiatives of the companies, we can understand that the work environment will not be as it was before and, possibly, the professional interaction between people from the same company also will not. Like the pandemic, the “new normal” must again test our ability to adapt. And #SeguimosEmFrente.