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You could say pre-pandemic, employers and employees alike accepted the inevitability of office working despite the costs and inconvenience. Now Gavin says we know that we have a choice. \u201cWe are witnessing the shift from fixed to fluid in terms of how we can do office work, how people think about office work and how we use office buildings\u201d.<\/p>\n
And he believes these changes have the potential to invigorate employee productivity while simultaneously trimming excess costs.<\/p>\n
Gavin refers to a book Where Is My Office \u2014 Reimagining the Workplace for the 21st Century written by Chris Kane who asks why office spaces remained relatively unchanged for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an excellent book because it shows why we need to think differently about how we do things. If you think about offices over the years \u2014 we have gone from using a fax machine, to big desks with phones and big computer screens, laptops and now smart devices and cloud computing. All this has been happening quietly and now Covid-19 has come like a \u2018tornado\u2019 and has proved we can do things differently and it is about choice\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gavin says some of the larger employers he has spoken with have noticed their employees are working more productively from home partly due to the fact they no longer have a long commute each day.<\/p>\n
SMEs and start-ups he said need to ensure that they have an online presence and ensure they are active in promoting their business. If you are a bricks-and-mortar type business then Gavin says 40% of your future customer interaction will be on-line and this he stresses is not just e-tailing but customers will expect all transactions to be conducted on-line.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you are a local bricks-and-mortar store with just a basic or underutilised website, there are ways to do more and upgrade quickly. There is and has been a lot of help available through enterprise offices who have been handing out vouchers to help people take their business online. \u201cAnother important aspect is to localise your online presence. If you are new to e-commerce, rather than trying to do business on a global scale or competing with other vendors on Amazon and eBay, think local, instead. Consider ways to focus on customers within a 30-kilometre radius for example by offering free local delivery within this radius.\u201d<\/p>\n
If you are self-employed then Gavin suggests you need to change your mindset and change the way you see yourself and your business.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you work as a graphic designer, for example, you need to be saying I am a person who sells graphic design services and you need to promote yourself as such. It is all about reigniting your business \u2014 big or small \u2014 so we are ready to do business in the next normal.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"