Worldwide, companies were not ready for the way work shifted during COVID-19. As things are opening back up, it is time to set ourselves up for our new future.

As Louis Pasteur wisely said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.”

The New Workplace

One of the benefits that have materialized from the quarantine is the proof of concept that working from home is feasible and practical for many employees and cost-effective for employers.

Companies now know that a sizeable portion of their workforce can be productive from home. People will only get more proficient at working remotely. They will develop better routines and master the necessary technologies. Soon there will be fewer distractions as kids head back to school, and some necessarily return to their places of employment. Travel for meetings and other traditionally face-to-face work scenarios will be replaced by virtual meetings, to reduce costs and increase productivity.

Take time to determine how your company will craft their post-COVID workplace. Knowing the structure of the workplace and workforce will set the foundation of the processes, training, management, and leadership needed to excel.

Strength & Leadership

Leaders are already seeing the vast array of options that now exist and devising ways to inspire those around them to strive to achieve these goals.

Start by taking a look at the vision, mission, and values of your organization. What needs to change based on what we have learned and experienced over the last several months?

Look at your department and team and tie them into the overall organizational vision, mission, and value system. Delve deeper by looking at the strengths and competencies needed for each role in your team, department, and or organization. Strive to enhance the talents of team members and employees instead of concentrating on their weaknesses. Build your team with members whose competencies complement each other.

New Training & Development Landscape

The status quo of training and development within your organization needs to change.

Whether you strictly taught in the classroom, through eLearning, video, or the handful of other training methods, you need to adapt. The term Blended Learning has been a mainstay in the industry, and this should be the goal of every organization. If more and more of the workforce is going to work remotely, how do we provide them training in the best manner?

Starting with the objective of the training, how are you trying to improve the participants in this training? What strengths or competencies need to be developed? What do you need to do to build knowledge, skills, and attitude? 

Use asynchronous eLearning to cover knowledge and add virtual classroom training to build skills. Virtual coaching and mentoring can help shape attitudes. This process will provide you the flexibility you will need to implement training in a workforce that now is diverse in one more way, some are office-based, and others are working remotely.

Be Like the U.S. Marines

Nothing is constant; everything is always changing. This concept has always been with us but has never been more apparent than now. We train our Marines to “improvise, adapt, overcome.” Adopting this mindset within our organizations will help us stay flexible in our thinking, courageous in our planning, disciplined in our training, and honorable in our management.