Recent research, including our Smart Working Survey conducted in collaboration with Istituto Demia, shows an inevitable correlation between the spread of the health emergency and the explosion of smart working, shifting in a very short time from a somewhat “niche” phenomenon to a major mass phenomenon. The Politecnico di Milano highlights that Italy has grown from 570,000 remote workers to 8 million.
With the onset of the emergency, a miracle happened: at lightning speed, both organisations structured for it and those that were unprepared equipped themselves, enabling almost all employees to start working from home. Our data indicates that only 13% of companies/entities were completely unprepared, yet the speed of the response was remarkable. A genuine management of the emergency, where HR and people surpassed themselves. There is reason to be proud of all this.
And so, amid disarray, perplexity and apprehension, many things were discovered during the lockdown period. First of all, awareness grew of the potential that can be expressed when people and the organisation are aligned in the face of common threats and goals.
Secondly, that from home everyone can—albeit with various challenges—work at their own pace and manage a new balance between family and work.
Furthermore, aside from a few opportunistic or manipulative behaviours, productivity was maintained, if not improved, because people focused on results rather than tasks, on the final output rather than time spent or working hours.
Not to mention that the absence of daily commutes, distance from certain workplace conflicts, constant pressure, and continuous interruptions caused by sharing physical spaces, have reduced workplace stress.
Albeit amid strong resistance and contradictions, control-oriented leadership has been caught off guard by the fact that people can organise themselves with greater autonomy and flexibility. And so delegation, linked to trust, even where rarely practised, becomes an essential reality.
Precisely because they are freer, people have unlocked more ideas, drawing on that distinctive ability to adapt in emergencies and devise smart solutions to improve daily activities.
Inevitably, the phenomenon of online meetings and training has exploded: throughout the week, activities followed one another that, even at a distance, constantly connected people, to such an intensive degree that optimisation was required to avoid becoming a source of stress themselves. In any case, digital awareness has inevitably increased.
Certain costs have decreased for companies and individuals, CO2 emissions into the atmosphere have dropped, pollution has significantly reduced, and urban centres have benefited from a reality unimaginable until early 2020.
The situation of heavy constraint, which made a virtue out of necessity, ended up making people long for a return to the workplace. Research shows that about 71% of workers feel uncomfortable with fewer opportunities to interact with colleagues and increased family burdens. It is therefore hoped that the adjustment period will bring a mix between physical presence and distance, between working in the office and working remotely.
According to our research, 84% of managers believe that the use of smart working will continue, and many have realised that once the health emergency is overcome, we will face a completely new scenario, both through the experience gained by tens of thousands of businesses and millions of workers, and above all through the resulting social, political, economic, cultural, and values-based shifts.
Undoubtedly, there will be major repercussions, first of all because many businesses will find it extremely difficult to continue operating as they did just a few months ago. The ongoing reliance on furlough schemes could be the precursor to more drastic measures, paving the way for downsizing.
Uncertainty, unpredictability and instability, which have become enduring realities, will create scenarios that need to be met with steady nerves, as in any period of severe crisis.
And since working practices will, for various reasons, be very different from what we are used to, this immediately calls for the support and development of well-prepared, resilient and balanced managers, capable of steering, managing, processing, anticipating and experiencing change. Research shows that businesses with an innovation manager or a change manager focused as much on the market as on people respond better in times of extraordinary difficulty.
It is clear that being able to make the right decisions quickly while maintaining very delicate balances will be essential to keeping our bearings and navigating turbulent waters.
Above all, it is essential that companies rally around their people right away, considering how to cushion shocks and threats, while paying close attention to the emotional waves running through the organisation. Sentiments, explicit and latent needs, workplace climate, and the values that provide stability and identity will form the backbone of managing an unprecedented transformation.
It will be important to provide support roles—whether psychologists, counsellors or coaches—who can acknowledge the inevitable distress and disorientation experienced by people and help them turn these into fresh awareness and the ability to take action.
It is likely that the foundational framework for rebuilding and setting a “new course” will consist of transparency, dialogue, open discussion, collaboration, care for the common good, a sense of being one large team, and genuine care, support and even emotional consideration for people, which—precisely because of the threat to our social fabric—might finally take precedence over financial, technological and organisational factors.
To this we must add that 50% of managers perceive smart working as an impoverishment of human and professional relationships. This points to a real risk: the fragmentation of work, the loss of an overarching process perspective and purpose, and the absence of vital in-person interactions, along with all the dialogue, sharing and emotional exchange they bring. All of this risks diluting professional content, making individuals seem “interchangeable by default”.
All the more reason why remote working must be balanced by in-person meetings designed with greater care and quality, specifically to reassure and engage people, reinforcing a sense of belonging—not only to the company as such, but above all to its values and community.
Creating opportunities for creative dialogue aimed at “how we can do better together starting tomorrow”, study groups, learning and working sessions, workshops, recreational moments and social gatherings, will make it possible to maintain constant touch with people’s thoughts, collective mindset, emotions and feelings, generating behaviours and solutions that could exceed expectations.
Alongside these, keeping the spotlight on the post-crisis era, on rebuilding and on a credible, positive and, above all, sustainable future will hold immense potential.
Furthermore, because “if you don’t stand out, you fade out”, this will prompt a major rethink of business and leadership models, market approaches, innovation practices, managerial methods, performance management, and collaborative frameworks.
It is desirable, and entirely possible, that values will become more oriented inward and towards people: trust, transparency, a sense of “We”, valuing diversity, inclusion, solidarity, listening, kindness, collaboration, connections, osmosis, creativity, initiative. And a new language, too. This will counterbalance drivers such as “accelerating, competing, challenging”, where the market dictates the rules. A market and a system that, moreover, have shown their fragility.
Everything will depend on the balance struck between a people-centric approach and a market-driven one, on the mix between the agile model, which has a very short-term perspective, and the sustainable model, which by its nature takes the long view. Otherwise, a major opportunity will be lost.
The difference will be made by organisations that have the courage and commitment to start afresh from what is essential and what truly matters, paying dedicated attention to curbing fear and nurturing the joy of working together for the common good.
And we will probably discover that precisely in times like these, in conditions like these, people and businesses can bring out the very best in themselves.
Written by:
Rossella Martelloni
Senior Consultant at Hermes Consulting
