It’s been over a year since Covid struck the world. The virus has taken its toll on humanity, with mass redundancies, cancelled travel and events, to closed offices and pressing need for financial support, many businesses have had to make huge changes in order to survive. We’re taking a look at some of these changes that are being made by companies across the globe.
1. Brands have a new breath of personality. When Covid hit, some companies did what they could to help with the crisis, demonstrating their adaptability, speed, and resilience. Additionally, brand message wording used in posts, ads, and other forms of media changed significantly when in lockdown. These factors definitely humanized businesses, which has resulted in greater recognition and visibility than those who didn’t.
2. Digital transformation was fast-tracked. There was a large gap between businesses that possessed digital strategies and those that didn’t, and when the pandemic was in full swing, this gap was visible to the world.
Over the past year, there has been a tremendous transition to platforms and technologies like slack, zoom, and the cloud, for those who weren’t utilizing them before. This unlocked new opportunities for companies to reach new audiences through virtual live events and webinars. Also, the acceptance of video calls replacing face-to-face meetings has increased alongside this.
3. People have realized that working from home is possible. This has to be the biggest change in business since the virus began. Those who were lucky enough to keep their job and work remotely didn’t have to suffer a sweaty and lengthy commute, and most got to enjoy wearing their own clothes in their own surroundings. Not to mention the business costs that were being saved by employees using their own power and resources as opposed to the office.
However, this was bad news for those who thrived in being surrounded by the hustle and bustle of a busy office and workplace. Also not having space or resources and managing childcare to create an effective place to work posed a difficult challenge.
It’s still unclear whether businesses will revert back, keep employees working remotely, or keep a foot in each with a blended working culture. But it’s safe to say there’ll be more opportunities to meet the ranging needs of employees, which businesses can take advantage of to increase their attractiveness as an employer.
4. Long-term thinking is becoming the norm. One of the most common phrases throughout the pandemic has been “COVID-19 has been a huge wakeup call for businesses”, and for good reason. It showed the world which companies were able to adapt to survive.
Now those survivors are dedicating more time to putting measures in place to ensure their resilience for any future crisis in any form. Whether this involves creating strategies to become a more resilient company by reviewing your offerings, or internal operations, it’s agreed that businesses don’t want to ever go through this again. Although it’s near impossible to efficiently prepare for any and every possible crisis, having a plan definitely helps, and could save someone’s job.
5. Becoming more mindful about employee mental health. This compliments the first point of businesses having a more humanized external branding presence, however, the companies that really thrive have directed this same energy inwards to the core of their workplace culture.
Implementing employee assistance programs, providing space and resources for people to talk is proving to be a valuable part of modern company culture. Although lockdown provided people with opportunities to redecorate, bake, and spend more time with the family, the mental health of others did suffer and businesses who acknowledge this by creating support are far more likely to retain employees as well as become attractive employers for future open positions.
Final thoughts – It’s been an eventful year, to say the least. So much change has happened in so little time, it’s really been an eye-opener for everyone let alone businesses. Overall, the points covered here can be categorized into technological and social changes. Those who were quick to adapt and utilize new opportunities whilst connecting to their audience and employees on a human level were the ones to set the bar high for others to aim for.