This article is a summary of a Capgemini invent report entitled “Reinventing Work”.

“The pandemic has profoundly changed the way we live”. How many times have we heard this? ‘So many times’ would be your answer, I am sure! But that does not mean that it is not true. So many companies are under lockdown and, even if not, all organisations have experienced significant disruptions to their operations. On the positive side, some companies have started to reap the benefits from the urgent implementation of digitisation. And while the original aim may have been to protect the health of their workers and their clients, digitisation was necessary for businesses to survive in the corporate world. Therefore, I would prefer to say that “the pandemic has profoundly digitised many companies”.

100 per cent work from office is dead

Today, going forward, all leaders agree that working 100 per cent from the office is not the right organisational model to implement. Working remotely is not just viable, it is also more efficient. The model has cut down the unproductive time of driving, traffic and parking. For Malta, this can be in the region of one to two hours. In other countries, more than half of the workers are considering living further away from the office because they do not have to travel for work, pushing property costs down even more. Working remotely has also improved employees’ work/life balance and improves diversity by allowing for a better gender balance, since women can now work in situations where it was not as possible before. Moreover, it has now been proven that remote workers are around 25 per cent more productive.

Technology made the difference

Technology made a big difference. Without Cloud Technology, remote working could not be possible. Moving to the public cloud is “coined” as the best deci- sion by many CIOs. The capability of Microsoft Office 365 and Google Suit, amongst others, made remote working easier, and the majority of employees are now familiar with these working tools. On the other hand, those companies who lacked infrastructure, or were afraid to take the plunge into the online world, have experienced serious negative consequences. Technology helped by providing collaborative platforms for free and this will continue being the practice. In particular, Zoom and Microsoft Teams have increased their market share considerably to the tune of 40 per cent.

Sustainability, accessibility and carbon footprint

The fact that almost all office workers can work from home has made this model more accessible to all and sundry. Additionally, according to the feedback received from the Foundation for IT Accessibility (FITA), leading digital tools and platforms are implement- ing an impressive number of functions to enable and improve accessibility, including accommodating colour blind- ness and dyslexia. With respect to the reduction of transportation, each teleworker is reducing the carbon footprint (and, thus, pollution), by means of a 50 - 69 per cent reduction in nitrogen oxides emissions. Therefore, we have to admit that this pandemic has taught us a few good lessons on how to provide our employees with “greener” opportunities.

Green in nature

With lockdown measures implemented at country, European and global level, the skies, the countryside and nature parks have never been so quiet. It is a fact that these locations are now being repopulated with animals. People all over the world have noticed that they hear birds that they have never heard before. It could be due to a change in migration, or simply because they were not being heard due to noise pollution!

Downsizing to survive

The majority of organisations, whether commercial or not, will need to recover from this drastic disruption. It is also a common understanding that some will not survive and will have to close down. All companies must be prudent in their spending and optimising resources. Spending wisely and with more agility will be the mantra for all organisations. If this has not hit some organisations as yet, it will happen in the very near future. Human re- sources departments will have a challenge on how to shave off some of the employees. Those employees whose performance was average, or of lower quality, will be the most at risk. But resort- ing to massive lay-offs does not create the right industrial and social climate. Organisations would be better off innovating and trans- forming through digitisation in- stead of laying off workers. And, yes, there will be a period during which digital transformation might have an impact on the bot- tom line, but this is until the curve starts going up again. As has been said lately “organisations need to reduce their living standards to survive”.

Transformation of digital skills

Digitisation will bring about digital transformation, but adequate attention needs to be paid to human resources and to train- ing. What is definite is that digital transformation will bring about the transformation of skills, and more so, digital skills. There will be a hefty shift towards the trans- formation of processes, which will become more electronic and digital. In the past, a consider- able number of digital transformations have failed. This is due to a level of unpreparedness experienced by employers and employees. Training and development were either poor or not given to all staff levels. In- deed, digital skills development is crucial for the digital transformation of companies.

Future sustainability

Many leaders have been pleasantly surprised at how quickly re- mote workers learnt how to work with online tools without experiencing massive or long- term problems. There was also more activity, more attendance, and enrichment in the interactions between colleagues and clients. Many surveys have indicated that working 100 per cent from the office is not desired by employees. However, looking ahead, there are other factors which must be taken into consideration. Going forward, we must not let ourselves be taken over by lock- down fatigue. Employers must find the best way to motivate and instil a new normal, which is reasonable in all aspects. New personal routines must improve in our daily tasks. Working from 8am to 8pm will not work. Additionally, while digital native employees thrived, others who are older or have a more real-life attitude struggled. It has been estimated that 40 per cent of employees miss physical interaction, and isolation, digital exclusion and loss of social ties have been reported. And, therefore, it is up to us to collectively find ways to improve this new normal and make it more social and acceptable. We must recreate team bonding and trust. Remote work- ing has taught us that online meetings can be said to be face- to-face because we see each other well on video. However, the real face-to-face contact will surely have psychological effects. People will not be able to detect certain feelings and attitudes. Knowing all this, we should al- ready start working on minimising the negative human effects of remote working.

Moreover, shortly, we will see a massive waste of space and money because most offices will be deserted. It is estimated that the target occupancy of offices will not exceed 25 per cent. If this estimation is accurate, countries will experience problems in terms of real estate. Additionally, work offices need to be “spick and span”, and hygiene must be the main objective. The multiplier-effect of people testing positive must not be underestimated if we need to be efficient in work- space efficiency.

New working paradigm

Revising your operating model is crucial. Recent events have shown that transforming business processes and going fully digital would go a long way in securing the future success of companies. Due to emerging technologies, this was already crucial, and now due to COVID, this is even more so.

An efficient delivery centre, digitised contract signing, as well as digital assessment in recruitment are all examples of best practices. Redefining the relationship with your people is a good response to the challenges for the period to come. Employment and conditions of work must be- come more personalised and supported by social partners. This also calls for new ways of leadership, encouraging autonomy and recognition.

Having resilience will help us to recover quicker for the future un- known. This means that we must optimise better our resources and develop careers more flexibly. Re- mote working is the next challenge to assess and address. Regular innovation in collective rituals to maintain team dynamics will make us more resilient, and the need to support remote performance will now be needed more than ever.

The acceleration of the digital sphere will make the workplace more agile, mature and, in the end, resilient. Employees will need digital tools and training to work from anywhere and any- time. This calls for specific in- vestment to make people’s lives more sustainable.

In the end, the best that one can do is to strike the right balance be- tween business and employee needs. Reshaping the way an or- ganisation works is in itself a transformation, which in the end will lead to digitisation and digital skills upskilling. One cannot but emphasise how important the human aspect is in all this, and or- ganisations must have a collabo- rative approach with their employees to be able to make this transition more successful.

Carmel Cachia is the Chief Ad- ministrator of eSkills Malta Foundation.