uring the COVID-19 crisis, a large portion of the world’s population has been ordered to stay at home. Nothing in the past 50 years has been as disruptive as this pandemic will be for the way we work.
Before companies were forced to close their physical sites, only a limited part of the workforce was working remotely. Now, wherever it seems to be possible the employees and management are keeping the business up and running from home. During this forced experimentation period, we will gain valuable experience on how to deal with the limitations and the negative consequences, such as accessibility to infrastructure and data, security, and bandwidth issues.
Being forced to physically separate is helping us innovate and collaborate in myriad new ways because we are seeing the limitations: teleconferencing and video sessions are simply not enough. We still need to be present.
This sense of presence is the gate opener and a reason why XR (known as Cross Reality) technology can be a driver for change in remote working environments. Sharing spatial experience and interacting in the same space enhances communication and effectiveness of meetings, supported by integrated tools such as document and data sharing, sketching, annotation, whiteboards, and information search.
Creating persistent virtual working spaces is another element to enable asynchronous working for worldwide distributed teams, and give them a common space to connect. Creating a personalized environment where you feel convenient to work and it is easy to share knowledge and get in contact with colleagues and friends whenever it is necessary and the glue between the paradox of a working environment and well-being—of being separated and still feeling connected to other human beings.
Even if the technology is not yet perfect and accessible for everyone, it will substantially grow over the next months and years and play an important role in enabling social connections whilst under physical distance.
No Physical Space, No Boundaries
More and more productive tools are equipped with remote access capability and can be used with low-cost hardware. There is no longer a need for a dedicated physical space to fulfil the given tasks. It’s inevitable: former workspaces are going to be virtualized and eventually so will the companies.
We have known for a while now (as research from the likes of Deloitte Millennial survey show) that the gig economy is prevalent and defining both Millennials and Gen Z. What COVID-19 is accelerating is also the employment period cycle, which is becoming ever shorter. This will pose new challenged to existing HR approaches.
To take advantage of the crisis it is not enough to transfer the common working behaviors online. A good leader knows how to steer remote teams, but the future workforce striving for a meaningful task needs a different type of leadership and a change in mindset towards purpose-setting and not micro-managing.
In a nutshell, we face different requirements. The future workforce is equipped with a technological understanding and already lives online. Their inclination toward entrepreneurship is well balanced with social interaction and their wish for collaboration.
Being enabled to work remotely adds more flexibility but also fueling transnational collaboration on a new level. Already, people are working together worldwide to hack the pandemic—a great example how a common goal and connectivity that knows no borders can mobilize talent.
According to Accenture Technology Vision 2019, it is one of the biggest wins from the era of digital transformation: organizations can draw on a workforce with a constantly evolving set of capabilities, comprised of employees who can more readily adapt to new roles and needs.
Some Welcome Side Effects
As employees are no longer forced to commute every day to their workplace destinations, we will have a big side effect of this change of the current working model.
Less mobility is reducing the need for physical mobility space. By 2020, 50% of the world’s population will live in cities and it will grow to > 60% by 2030 (UN Cities Report)—decreasing the need for commuting. Reducing peak times will help to master the challenge of urban mobility we are currently faced with.
More people in cities, more space to live, and increased quality of urban life: these can be possible if we increase the flexibility to work from wherever it is possible.
A New Business Ecosystem
Technology is a great enabler for this new freedom and flexibility. The precondition is to avoid a war of tech giants and providers, and not hinder the success of a seamless exchange (interoperability) between the different tools and platforms—the new normal ecosystem.
It is on us to foster responsibility for this emerging connected ecosystem and create adaptable governance mechanisms between businesses, the public, and governments. This is critical, not only because contained areas such as education and healthcare are critical, but because the entire economy depends on safe, secured and trusted systems to function in the future.
In times where physical distancing is mandatory, we have been lucky to explore new possibilities to stay in touch with each other, work, teach, and entertain. Improvement of technology and platforms will help us to continue this positive aspect and bring it to others in remote parts of the world that may not be able to experience quite the same yet.
If ecosystem challenges and regulations do not hamper progress, we will move further into a world where future talent finds their space to create value and deliver meaningful input to society whilst we prepare to respond better in an expectable next future lockdown scenario.
a global affairs media network
Less Mobility, More Flexibility
May 28, 2020
D
uring the COVID-19 crisis, a large portion of the world’s population has been ordered to stay at home. Nothing in the past 50 years has been as disruptive as this pandemic will be for the way we work.
Before companies were forced to close their physical sites, only a limited part of the workforce was working remotely. Now, wherever it seems to be possible the employees and management are keeping the business up and running from home. During this forced experimentation period, we will gain valuable experience on how to deal with the limitations and the negative consequences, such as accessibility to infrastructure and data, security, and bandwidth issues.
Being forced to physically separate is helping us innovate and collaborate in myriad new ways because we are seeing the limitations: teleconferencing and video sessions are simply not enough. We still need to be present.
This sense of presence is the gate opener and a reason why XR (known as Cross Reality) technology can be a driver for change in remote working environments. Sharing spatial experience and interacting in the same space enhances communication and effectiveness of meetings, supported by integrated tools such as document and data sharing, sketching, annotation, whiteboards, and information search.
Creating persistent virtual working spaces is another element to enable asynchronous working for worldwide distributed teams, and give them a common space to connect. Creating a personalized environment where you feel convenient to work and it is easy to share knowledge and get in contact with colleagues and friends whenever it is necessary and the glue between the paradox of a working environment and well-being—of being separated and still feeling connected to other human beings.
Even if the technology is not yet perfect and accessible for everyone, it will substantially grow over the next months and years and play an important role in enabling social connections whilst under physical distance.
No Physical Space, No Boundaries
More and more productive tools are equipped with remote access capability and can be used with low-cost hardware. There is no longer a need for a dedicated physical space to fulfil the given tasks. It’s inevitable: former workspaces are going to be virtualized and eventually so will the companies.
We have known for a while now (as research from the likes of Deloitte Millennial survey show) that the gig economy is prevalent and defining both Millennials and Gen Z. What COVID-19 is accelerating is also the employment period cycle, which is becoming ever shorter. This will pose new challenged to existing HR approaches.
To take advantage of the crisis it is not enough to transfer the common working behaviors online. A good leader knows how to steer remote teams, but the future workforce striving for a meaningful task needs a different type of leadership and a change in mindset towards purpose-setting and not micro-managing.
In a nutshell, we face different requirements. The future workforce is equipped with a technological understanding and already lives online. Their inclination toward entrepreneurship is well balanced with social interaction and their wish for collaboration.
Being enabled to work remotely adds more flexibility but also fueling transnational collaboration on a new level. Already, people are working together worldwide to hack the pandemic—a great example how a common goal and connectivity that knows no borders can mobilize talent.
According to Accenture Technology Vision 2019, it is one of the biggest wins from the era of digital transformation: organizations can draw on a workforce with a constantly evolving set of capabilities, comprised of employees who can more readily adapt to new roles and needs.
Some Welcome Side Effects
As employees are no longer forced to commute every day to their workplace destinations, we will have a big side effect of this change of the current working model.
Less mobility is reducing the need for physical mobility space. By 2020, 50% of the world’s population will live in cities and it will grow to > 60% by 2030 (UN Cities Report)—decreasing the need for commuting. Reducing peak times will help to master the challenge of urban mobility we are currently faced with.
More people in cities, more space to live, and increased quality of urban life: these can be possible if we increase the flexibility to work from wherever it is possible.
A New Business Ecosystem
Technology is a great enabler for this new freedom and flexibility. The precondition is to avoid a war of tech giants and providers, and not hinder the success of a seamless exchange (interoperability) between the different tools and platforms—the new normal ecosystem.
It is on us to foster responsibility for this emerging connected ecosystem and create adaptable governance mechanisms between businesses, the public, and governments. This is critical, not only because contained areas such as education and healthcare are critical, but because the entire economy depends on safe, secured and trusted systems to function in the future.
In times where physical distancing is mandatory, we have been lucky to explore new possibilities to stay in touch with each other, work, teach, and entertain. Improvement of technology and platforms will help us to continue this positive aspect and bring it to others in remote parts of the world that may not be able to experience quite the same yet.
If ecosystem challenges and regulations do not hamper progress, we will move further into a world where future talent finds their space to create value and deliver meaningful input to society whilst we prepare to respond better in an expectable next future lockdown scenario.
