COVID-19 has undoubtedly pushed everyone in today’s workforce into an “extreme form of working from home” (Bloom, 2020). This crisis has not only illustrated the many complications and challenges associated with getting work done, but has also highlighted the major gaps in businesses that are struggling to streamline their work processes and meet their targets during a crisis.
Considering the current state of things, and what we don’t know about the future, perhaps the most crucial question businesses need to start asking is “how to better prepare and equip [your] staff, to build a competitive workforce for tomorrow.” In the midst of a pandemic, now is as good a time to start than ever. Consider these three vital ways in which we can start reworking the current workplace model and begin building a more cohesive and modernized workforce, today:
Integrating Technology
At this point, it’s now a tale as old as time, dating back to the Industrial Revolution: Technology has and will continue to upend traditional working models. Up until now, law has largely operated as a “face-to-face, paper business”, and whilst most firms have adapted to various document management softwares, cloud systems and e-discovery, it is high-time that law begins its conversion into a “full-fledged virtual system” (Rhodes, 2020).
With COVID-19 disrupting old-age working practices, firms should use this as a live-experiment to begin the modernization of their existing regular working practices. For example, the adaptation of video conferencing to continue communication with clients and fellow colleagues has been a complete asset in working from home as no individual is then tied to a specific location. The cloud has also been brilliant in “maintaining productivity for lawyers” (Rhodes, 2020). Equipping your employees with the right tools and technologies is essential in surviving in today and tomorrow’s future business climate and by using this crisis to your advantage, business leaders can start
identifying opportunities for change and then begin these recommendations, well into tomorrow.
Remodel Training & Business Development Programs
It is no question that much of our education, labour and existing social policy structures are terribly out of date, made for a different time with different working and social circumstances. In order to respond to these rapid changes, businesses must continue to reimagine its existing processes or risk relegating its people into the economic slow lane (which for the most part is now happening for many). But where to start? Stephen Danvers, Arlyn Recruiting’s own, suggests starting by looking at the firm’s existing “professional development programs,” which includes training and upskilling.
Upskilling your employees is all about addressing specific skill and performance gaps, there is “no one-size-fits-all solution” (Milano, 2019). Use this pandemic as a means to have open conversations with individual employees. This is a great time to begin determining the knowledge gaps within your organization and invest in your people. When it comes to revising or implementing programs, start by determining if volume training programs or individual programs are needed, can training be refigured with your internal teams or are external educational individuals required to step in? What types of learning opportunities make sense, or in our situation, how to develop effective virtual learning opportunities? By remodeling and continuously putting up-skilling on the frontline of continuous improvement, firms will not only see improved
individual employee performance, but also retention, which in turn will attract new talent.
Leadership: All Changes Start From the Top
Finally, with any major change, disruption or implementation made in a firm, can come uncertainty and doubt from members of your team. Coincidentally, confusion and doubt have been at the forefront of concerns for many candidates during this crisis, and rightfully so, seeing as changes made have been so rapid and quick, that many aren’t able to keep up. As we continue to navigate these murky waters, much like how children look to their elders or parents as pillars of examples and support, employees will naturally look to their seniors or managers as guiding lights in the midst of these disruptions and changes. In a post 9/11 study, many employees described how “important” it was to hear the voice of the leader, and that leaders in particular had a “special role [in] reducing employee anxiety” (Argenti, 2020), as they acted as a beacon within times of great uncertainty and difficulty. Whether you’re leading from the front as a manager or a supervisor, or at the back as a colleague or
subordinate, you are “always leading by example” (Schrage, 2016).
As it happens, people often have the innate ability to watch a leader and “subconsciously” pick up cues or “mimic their attitude, beliefs, and actions” (Maxwell, 1998). Your actions are both a “mirror and [a] window” (Schrage, 2016) to your employees, and what you do, speaks volumes. In turn, as a leader yourself, this will ultimately call for self-reflection as it pushes you into “think[ing] harder about how others [may] interpret [your] behaviour” (Schrage, 2016). You set the standard for your team, and who better for your employees to look at to showcase how changes can be seen as positives?
If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it would be the ways in which we as humans can learn to adapt in the face of large-scaled adversity. Certainly, whilst the ideas illustrated here aren’t necessarily proprietary or anything new, this pandemic has ultimately extended an invitation to enact positive changes within our current working models. Whilst the “old guard will want things back to the old normal,” things will and “have [inevitably] changed” (LawFuel, 2020)
By using COVID-19 as a testing ground for new operating models, employees can begin identifying opportunities which will, in turn create new jobs, but also new business development opportunities within the firm. In doing so, this will ultimately lead to the creation of a modernized competitive work environment which will not only appeal to the younger generations that are soon to enter and take over the workforce, but also upskill your existing employees to improve efficiency, personal development and morale within the firm. Overall, this pandemic has given us time to “reflect on ways to improve [our] profession” (Rhodes, 2020), and in doing so allow us to look towards the future and how we can better the working landscape for tomorrow.
