Business has been severely disrupted of late for millions of companies and organisation worldwide. There are some rare examples of companies doing quite well, but on the whole, it is safe to say that most businesses have, at the least, taken a hit.

With this, it is an excellent opportunity for businesses to stand and stop for a moment to assess what these temporary measures could teach us about how to operate in the future. 

Here are 4 considerations that you might want to look at:

1. Home and flexible working - many companies have toyed with the idea, but it is a scary proposition; having enough trust to trial or implement it and know that employees will complete work and that the business will survive (or thrive!) Now people have been forced to do this - We imagine many sceptics have been pleasantly surprised as to its effectiveness. The potential of financially saving is enormous, do you need as many buildings or as much office space? The maintenance costs on these assets are another huge costs for most businesses. Are your people happier and better off not having to pay for fuel or travel in order to commute? Attendance will almost certainly have improved, and punctuality should be a problem of the past.
   Is this something to consider as a permanent change to take into the future?
   
   
2. Roles and Responsibilities - with some companies having to furlough members of staff, the staff that remain have had to pick up some different and wider responsibilities. While some of this activity is inconvenient, you will find some duties or tasks sit better with other people and encourage efficiencies or improved workflow across the business.
   Where are you finding little wins when shuffling workloads around?
   
   
3. Staffing - I almost do not want to write this down, but it is a consideration. Are you finding that you are making efficiencies in staffing and noticing that business is not affected? This process may well expose potential overstaffing in some teams that you should now address. Hopefully, you will be finding that this is balanced by noticing understaffing in other areas and hence you may well be able to redeploy staff.
   How are you getting on with current staffing levels?
   
   
4. Creativity - are you now looking to your people and leadership teams to ‘get creative’ in terms of overcoming problems? You may well be encouraging virtual meetings to share ideas, whether it be revenue-driving products and services or problem-solving for clients, which should be continued well after any kinds of lockdown measures and quarantining of staff.
   What are you doing extra that is adding value?
   

These are just some of the considerations that people are looking at, but we just wanted to stress the point that many of your actions and initiatives are fully able to continue providing value well after this pandemic has passed, so have a long memory and apply all of your learning to the future, not just the present.