Are we just going back to the way things used to be - are you going to scare people?
We need "working" to change, to follow the science as well as time to adapt. We want some of those business gains - in terms of hours not spent commuting and a reduction in building operational costs, but we also need to be realistic about our customers and employees' needs right now.
Technology to assist us in our new pandemic lives and helping us to reframe a new culture.
I think that in the UK and other countries we have felt like a prison population and that prision culture has embedded in our personal experience for more than a year and now we are going back into a world of unseen fear.
You were scared - so admit it
We all were scared - The question is are we still scared? We talk these days about safe spaces, emotional security, mental health and related subjects. I find it ironic that when I ask people what they think about mental welfare, they shuffle and say "it's good to talk about it" in the most uncomfortable way possible. Like teenagers watching a sexy scene in a film with their parents. But mental welfare for the working population will be a factor in strategic planning and operational metrics and therefore IT will have to play a role.
Every organisation must consider the pandemic management plan to include the use of technology to make employees feel safe at work. Just in the same as we invest in physical security. There will be new uses for IoT as part of a digital safety net as we need different information to manage our organisation's requirements for internal test and trace operations. We won't be doing the medical stuff but knowing where customers and employees have been in physical contact and their current Covid status will be as much a part of business as usual as stock control and supply chain integrity.
I am asked a lot about hybrid working. What the challenges are for organisations and what IT services need to be delivered. According to recent surveys and research studies:
30% of people would rather quit than go back to an office
Something like 40% of Office workers in the US switched to home working
Many organisations have found large cost savings as a result of moving to remote working.
But finally, my last comment is this - sadly the pandemic isn't over yet. So the IT issues haven't even clearly been defined and will be subject to change.
Is fear an IT issue - of course it is, so let's talk budget!