How COVID-19 is Changing the Way that the World Does Business Moving Ahead

• Author: Jessica Williams
• Posted: 2024-10-15

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized the way that the world does business. As millions of global workers were relegated to their homes in isolation, it became obvious that business processes and practices were going to change dramatically as a result. Even after the virus is controlled, experts believe that the workplace will look much different than it did prior to the year 2020. While some of these changes are temporary, other differences may be permanent in nature. Here are five of the changes that you may expect to see moving forward as the business world continues to grapple with the effects of this global pandemic.

New Forecasting Tools

It is no surprise that the original tenants of supply and demand have been thrown into chaos during these unprecedented times. The previous business forecasting methods are not proving reliable during this extremely fluid situation. Instead of traditional analytics to forecast demand and react accordingly, business leaders are learning that they need to lean on cloud-based technologies for forecasting. Real-time data analytics are becoming more important than ever as decision-makers react to the volatile marketplace.

Improvement for Women

The bigger winners on the job scene are women. With a definitive move to a remote workforce, businesses are no longer limited to recruiting new employees from their local area. As more businesses move their employees to remote work, more opportunities for women are beginning to open. In the past, a long commute was a significant hindrance to professional women looking to successfully balance their work with raising a family. As more and more remote employment opportunities become available, women are in a better place to apply for the jobs that best suit their talents, regardless of the location. This will only serve to accelerate the role of women in the workforce while advancing gender equality along the way.

Less Travel

As the work of the world slowed down, business travel became virtually nonexistent in some areas that were hit particularly hard by the virus. Now that most places are beginning to open back up, travel is again on the rise. However, business leaders have generally been cautious about sending their employees back on the road. Now that employees have had to adapt to a world without essential travel, it is becoming obvious that many of these meetings and tasks can be completed remotely.

Increased Safety Measures

Many workers are understandably skittish about returning to their places of unemployment. To ease these fears, businesses are going hard after implementing strict safety measures. It used to be that employee safety was focused on manufacturing industries. In today's COVID-19 environment, leaders are recognizing the need to step up safety protocols in an effort to protect the overall health of their employees. Measures to consider implementing include the installation of hand sanitizing stations, more stringent cleaning processes, socially distanced cubicles and work spaces, and higher standards of office ventilation.

Bridging the Divide Between Knowledge Workers and the Remaining Workforce

Once the COVID-19 virus hit in full force, technology companies were able to quickly adapt to the changing conditions by immediately transitioning their work to a remote space. This clearly gave the white-collar workers an advantage in being able to keep their jobs without losing income. Remote work was not possible for factory workers and those in the manufacturing industries. Moving forward, you should expect to see an effort to bridge the divide between knowledge workers and the operational workforce. Leaders are now grappling with the problem of how to run a factory but still keep the employees safe. It has been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Expect to see this play out in the manufacturing sector as innovators look for ways to enable frontline workers to access equipment and machines remotely.

It is impossible to predict how the jobs picture will be affected by all of these changes. As the world continues to see the fallout of the pandemic, expect business leaders to have to continually adapt their processes to meet the demands of this fluid economy. The only sure thing is that the business world will have to adapt to this new normal if they expect to be successful in the volatile marketplace.