Today when I drove from my home to our empty office to pick up mail delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, I had the opportunity to catch a few minutes of Michael Barbaro, host of The Daily, who interviewed the New York Times’ Donald G. McNeil, Jr. They prognosticated about the next installment of the pandemic and what they expect society will look like. It got me thinking about the future of work and I thought I’d share a few of thoughts on how this life-changing and thoroughly disruptive pandemic will impact Communiqué PR, its clients, and many other businesses like ours.
Here are my predictions for the next 12 months:
- Work from home will remain the norm. Until there is a vaccine or reliable treatment (or the disease isn’t spreading), I can’t imagine that we’ll want our team to risk their lives to come into the office, especially since they can work so effectively from their homes.
- Video communication will remain the most efficient and effective means of staying in touch. Before the pandemic, we didn’t use Microsoft Teams, but now it’s become a daily feature of our workdays. We also use Zoom, but Microsoft Teams is our go-to tool because of its integration with SharePoint and the ability to access so much of our company’s data from one location.
- Operating expenses will continue to shift. We will not spend as much money as in previous years on team lunches, team building in person, or business travel. Instead, we will invest in technology that allows our team to work more efficiently from home. Perhaps, when things get more normal, we will spend money on virtual team-building activities or training opportunities.
- Results and ROI will be the name of the game. We anticipate our clients will put more emphasis than ever on ensuring every dollar they spend on PR provides a clear and measurable return. It will be more important than ever to measure results and show how those results are providing a return. It will also be vital to consider and focus on the strategies and tactics that will offer the highest probability of success at the best value.
- Learning and training will happen virtually. We will embrace new tools like Panopto Express to create and share video via YouTube, Google Classroom or from Panopto’s reliable and secure video-content management system. This free solution will enable us to use video more effectively for staff training. It is a great way to record and share a PowerPoint presentation.
- Team composition. We are fortunate to have a talented team of full-time staff and a team of professional freelancers that augment our capabilities. This blended team allows us to scale our business up and down to accommodate our clients’ needs and special requirements. I envision that we’ll continue to rely on this combination in the coming months.
Longer Term Changes
- Homes will become more important and we may choose not to lease as much office space and instead invest in our team’s home offices. This investment may include both hardware and software.
- Conservation of resources will remain a top priority. We’ve seen shortages of toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and sometimes food. In addition, many of us are concerned about climate change and the impact that consumption has on the environment. This pandemic may forever change our collective perspective and behavior around what we truly need.
We are all navigating uncharted waters with the global and ongoing impact of this strain of coronavirus. Navigation will require flexibility, keen forward thinking, and the resolve to be brave, nimble and open-minded to satisfy and sustain the needs of our clients in this unsettling new world. Few of us imagined we’d ever face anything of this magnitude in our lifetime. Adversity often breeds tremendous innovation and supreme focus – drawing out the best of all of us – and I fully believe we’ll emerge stronger for having endured this world-changing event. No less a pundit than Francis of Assisi said, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”