The Future of Work in the COVID Era

2020 — A year that will be referenced to in infamy for generations. A pandemic that as of October 26th has claimed over 1.16 million lives globally, and over 225,000 in the United States since January.

The disruption that COVID has caused in the US economy especially has been upending over a magnitude of metrics — Over 22 million jobs have been lost since COVID hit, with only 42% of those jobs recovered, The poverty rate has increased to around 16% in September, after our government has failed to pass additional funds for COVID relief through the Cares Act after the initial bill passed in March.

Small businesses continue to struggle, and as we come into winter months, restaurant will continue to suffer as regulations prevent customers from entering, and Yelp reports that 60% of businesses that have closed down from COVID have permanently closed their stores.

With the US economy on the bring of a very dark winter, what solutions, innovations, and progress has been made in mitigating this disaster for the foreseeable future?

Technology Improvements in the Workplace during COVID-19:

Zoom has been a massive factor in companies and institutions to adapt to teams working from their home. In fact, Zoom has seen a 353.7% year over year increase with enterprise accounts since the start of the pandemic. The daily rise in users has increased from 10 million users in December 2019 to 300 million users by March 2020. This has allowed companies to function in somewhat of normalcy, and has been the saving grace as many companies would have no other option than to close if it weren’t for this tool.

Many companies need to justify having employees return to work, as the overhead for office space renting is a large part of a company’s spending. So what is being done to allow the safe return of employees back to in person employment?

One technological development is the Safe Distance app, developed by Smart Citti and Wrld3D. This creates a 3D layout of an office, and is able to show the location of the staff in order to show which parts of the office are crowded. This can allow for real-time decision making on whether or not an area is too crowded, and decision makers can disperse if a crowd is deemed unsafe.

There is also an increased attention to being able to track the location of employees through GPS signals to geolocate. This can be used as a way to do contact tracing to look backwards to see what individuals the infected person could have had contact with.

Another area of technological adaption to combat the spread of COVID is the increased adoption of smarter technology of common office interfaces that can be utilized through a personal smart phone. Objects such as elevator buttons, light switches, taps and meeting booking screens are increasingly becoming controllable through smart phones. Other examples of smart-workplace technology is facial recognition, digital signage, and integrated workplace management systems. Replacing common contact points with touch-free options removes areas where the virus may linger, protecting staff and operationally, reducing the number of surfaces which need to be cleaned regularly.

A lot of this technology hinges on it to be properly implemented, and seemingly this responsibility falls on HR staff. The responsibilities will increase to include the following to help implement smart technology to re-open offices safely:

• Ability to collect extensive data all in one easy to view place (i.e. daily health updates, test results, and contact-tracing)
• Unify data on one platform to rapidly track possible outbreaks and coordinate responses
• React and adapt quickly to sick team members to prevent employees from spreading COVID-19 (i.e. deactivate office badges, order testing/quarantines, close or clean specific facilities)

All these technology prime the stage for companies to start opening up office spaces again, but this is a critical moment for the US economy; if it is successful, our economy could see a resurgence. If not, and more cases are reported, it could slow the capacity for offices to re-open, which could have lasting negative effects on the public health as well as economic recovery.

Tracking occupancy data will be a hard currency for understanding the spread and effectiveness of these technologies, and companies may need to invest heavily in order to properly track any spreading that could occur.

Re-thinking the concept of a traditional office space might also be necessary. If we are able to transform spaces that are not currently being used, such as recreation centers, concert halls, and restaurants, we would be able to meet the demand of having functioning office spaces while having safe spaces as well as potentially charging for work spaces from struggling businesses. As Harvard Business Review states: “many of us are still functioning from cultures, norms, relationships, and practices that were in place prior to the pandemic. If we wish to change or adapt any of those factors in the future, it will be difficult without some degree of physical presence. As a corporate CEO told us in a recent workshop, ‘You can’t change a culture over Zoom.’ ”

We must envision a future with a mix of weapons; there is no silver bullet to getting our economy back to “normal”. The implementation of technology in the office space, combined with virtual meeting technology like Zoom to allow staff to work from home, along with the adaption of un-used space for potential office-space (ie, restaurant space, concert halls, recreation centers) as work hubs, will all be necessary as we transition from a nation that works from home back into the real-world economy.

What’s Next?

But what other solutions are out there that have not been thought of? Over the next several months, I will be working with a small team of students in the Strategic Communication Graduate program at CU Boulder to identify the most prevalent issues businesses are facing, and will work towards a solution that will improve the future of the work-place in the COVID-19 era.

We’ve identified several areas to look into, but what are some things that you think might improve our current work climate (besides complete vaccination)?