The coronavirus pandemic gripped the world in the early part of 2020. Writing that sounds extremely strange when you consider we are now, and COVID is still the talk of the town. Many things happened – and continue to happen – throughout this ongoing pandemic. You will read here about the COVID Adaptations Your Business Should Implement Full-Time.
For businesses, it meant that changes had to be made. These changes were forced, and a lot of businesses ended up doing things that they’d never done before. When the world started opening up, and companies could go back to how they operated before, a lot of the changes we made were scrapped. They only served one purpose: to help get your business through the hardest part of the pandemic.
On the other hand, there are certain Covid adaptations that are so good they should be implemented full-time. All of you have experienced something new in your business over the last two years, and you’ve all noticed that certain things genuinely improve your company. The pandemic forced you to adapt, but maybe you should keep some of these covid adaptations for good? Let’s look at a few of the biggest things businesses implemented that should continue to stay in place:
Flexible working
Working from home became a mainstream thing in the Spring of 2020. Since then, a lot of businesses have gone back to working how they did pre-COVID. However, many have seen that this style of working is genuinely beneficial. As a result, they have implemented flexible working into their daily schedule. Employees can work from home full-time, or spend fewer days in the office.
For your business, it opens the door to the possibility of downsizing, helping you save a fortune on office maintenance costs. In some circumstances, you can be an entirely remote company, negating your office bill completely. Of course, a key benefit of flexible working is that it allows employees to work more productively. They can find a working style and setup that makes them more productive and efficient, improving job satisfaction, helping you reduce turnover rates, and just improving your business on the whole.
Video meetings/interviews
Whether you’re meeting with a client, employee, or a potential candidate, the pandemic meant you had to do all of these things online. Enter Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and any other platforms that allowed video conferencing. All of a sudden, every company on the planet was running online video meetings.
As time went on, you might have realized that this is genuinely a more efficient way of doing meetings. You don’t have to waste time commuting to a separate location – and you don’t have to worry about traffic or public transport making you late. These meetings are easier to set up, so they take less time out of your day.
Therefore, it can be highly beneficial to keep video meetings or interviews as the way you do things in your business. Alternatively, you can take another approach to meetings that we saw throughout the pandemic: scrapping them. More and more businesses scrapped regular meetings in lieu of email updates. For some, this can be a better approach as you waste less time holding meetings every week/day, letting your team get on with their tasks.
Digital signatures
In a world where you can’t meet clients face-to-face, how on earth were you supposed to get signatures on important contracts or documents? It isn’t just a client thing – what about needing new employees to sign their employment contracts? You started seeing lots of businesses implement electronic signature technology as a way of adapting to the current climate.
Here, you could email a document to someone and they had a way of securely signing it with a digital signature. There are various technologies that do this – some just need them to type their name, while others need them to draw a signature. Either way, it offers a very secure and safe way to get things signed digitally.
You may be allowed to meet people face-to-face now, but does this mean you should scrap this technology? Realistically, it’s something that should stay in place full-time. Especially if you’re not meeting clients in the flesh, opting for video meetings instead. Regardless, digital signatures are better than physical ones because they are more secure and efficient.
All you need to do is send an email, and a document can be signed in a matter of minutes. With the traditional approach, you have to arrange a meeting, get things signed – or post a contract and wait for it to be posted back to you. Both approaches are time-consuming, so maybe the digital way is best.
Team bonding nights
2020 was the toughest year for most of us. 2021 was hard at the beginning and the end, but we did have a good few months where things felt close to how they were back in 2019. Certainly, for businesses, 2021 was nowhere near as devastating. Yes, you may have had closures now and then, but you were allowed to operate for the majority of the year. Plus, by then, we’d already dealt with the pandemic for a year. In 2020, this was all brand new to us – and we didn’t know how to respond.
Consequently, morale amongst employees was at an all-time low. Your employees were probably worried about losing their jobs, and many of them might have been stuck at home alone. So, like most companies, you took it upon yourselves to do something to cheer them up. As a result, almost every business had at least one night per week or month where Zoom quizzes were held.
Now, you don’t have to keep doing these – many of you are breathing a sigh of relief – but the concept of a team bonding night should be implemented full-time. Once a week is probably too much, but set aside a day every month where your team does something fun to relax and bond. You’ll find it works wonders for morale and productivity.
Evidently, some of the things you implemented because of COVID should continue to run in 2022 and beyond. Even when the pandemic goes away, these things should remain in place. Why? Because they help your business and provide benefits you didn’t see before. It took a pandemic to force you to adapt, but you can reap the rewards for years to come.
