Call this a reminder of some sorts but from what I can see and with the recent upsurge of Covid- 19 cases even though the Vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech are presently being bought/ administered across countries (at least 42 countries according to WHO as of Jan 9th, 2021), The need to remain productive in business has now become more than necessary..
The rise of pre-recorded videos and audio messages
Have you noticed that pre-recorded videos and audio messages were used more than any other year across businesses across industries? Most business owners had to resort to audio recordings to pass messages across as well as video messaging and walk through to show the process to team members.
What this means is that Video and Audio remain a great way to pass messages to your team messages to help them remain productive. Hearing your voice also gives a personalized touch to what needs or challenges there are to be resolved. I for one experienced this greatly and on a lighter, there were times I got tired of typing messages. Video and audio was just the way to go. This is a trend that must be fully embraced to remain productive as a business
This leads us on to better collaboration with meeting tools:
Team viewer, ZOOM, Google meet, Microsoft teams, Skype translator amongst others are great collaboration tools as they all have the basic features needed for productivity. The meeting platforms that provide video meetings are your connectivity windows for 2021 and beyond. Virtual meetings have definitely seen a surge which will continue so if you have still not tapped into this, NOW is the time to do so.
More refreshing breaks:
With the almost non-existent commuting time being taken out of daily routines, teams are more refreshed and focused to handle their daily assignments and perform their roles more efficiently. During the day, mini-breaks may become more frequent and this means your teams are better recharged. Taking time to listen to that podcast, read something on the net, recharge, or even read a chapter of a favorite book or novel will see an increase. I see this as a good thing as long as it is not abused. There must be clear policies guiding timelines for churning out the required stuff and call times must be strongly adhered to. So whether we work remotely or physically, the business still has to go on.
Flexibility in work time may give rise to hourly remuneration and people generally being able to start that side hustle they always dreamed of.
So as long as employees are not cheating on your work time, this is also a trend in the right direction as people become more financially independent in the long run. However, there must be clear succession plans so that as a business owner, you are not left in the ditch unexpectedly. A good thing to consider will be contractual work hours to remain productive.
Another interesting trend whether we admit it or not is that we will see better home offices being set up.
While brick and mortar offices will remain and some space may seem wasteful (You may want to consider outsourcing large complex spaces), it has become more glaring that working remotely if utilized efficiently is actually more productive. However, with this comes the need to continue to foster personal connections among teams. Virtual tea breaks, games during the day will go a long way in easing the innate need of man as a social being.
A final trend observed of course is the most common one. The latest buzz word ‘AI’ to the rescue for most of your productivity needs:
With machine automation(machines being able to learn from experience read here) chat boxes conversing with you in real-time, robots performing roles once only performed by humans, it is no longer news that working remotely and remaining productive is better enhanced and made easy with AI tools. I benefitted from this article and I am sure you will.
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