Living Workspace

Lasting Worklife Benefit from Covid-19?

Recent Covid-19 flare ups in Melbourne and Sydney demonstrate both the fragility of controls and the reality that changed ways of living and working are going to be with us for some time yet.  Best estimates for a vaccine seem to be in the order of 1–2 years or more at best.

“Working from home” has been with us for long enough that enabling, supporting and enhancing systems of work are now being more widely employed.  Thoughts seem to be turning to discussion and serious consideration of this becoming the new “norm”.  Of course there are very many jobs that can’t be done remotely (eg services) but there are very many that can.   The message gaining voice is that people in majority like working from home, especially the return to them and their family of all those commuting hours.  There is also the possibility of increased productivity and creativity flowing from a comfortable and low stress environment (which home hopefully is most of the time).

Major organisations are being challenged to think about how this change can be managed and, more importantly, how potential benefits and great value can be extracted from being a thought and action leader in this major re-structure of how “work” is done.  An interesting article by McKinsey can be viewed here.   Clearly employees are in the box seat to reap great benefit from such change.   To the extent that Covid-19 has forced the pace of this change and the rapid refinement and widespread distribution of new low cost business communication technologies, maybe history will judge some good has come from Covid-19, to set off against its major destructive health and economic impacts.

Whether you are an employer, employee, contractor or entrepreneur, understanding the change that is upon us, you may want to be a leader in seizing new opportunities.  You will need to be creative, fleet footed, innovative and not bound to past norms.   Living Workspace Business Centre has always pursued innovative and flexible solutions for its clients, with a business model based more upon “what our client wants” rather than any fixed notion of what we should be doing or offering.   Living Workspace is investing in communication technologies that can connect people from any location whilst presenting an image of a business of substance, located in a suitably professional location at Norwest Business Park.  Whether our facilities are used in a physical or a virtual sense, we are confident we can provide what your business needs to prosper in these challenging times.

You don’t need to be immediately planning to use our facilities or to become a Virtual Office or Serviced Office client to contact us.  We are happy to engage in a conversation with you about how you can most successfully navigate your business through these challenging times. May be there is the potential for future business.  May be not.  In any case, there is no obligation – just drop us a line or give us a call.

Michael Trask is the founder and Director of Living Workspace Business Centre, Norwest