The impact of COVID-19 on the way of working
The need for change means that Dutch companies and organizations are on the eve of unprecedented innovation in work processes and workplaces. Most employees in the Netherlands expect the tension between the importance of organizational continuity and safe return to the workplace. Employees see the disappearance of travel time as the biggest advantage of working from home. On the other hand, their managers emphasize more personal responsibility.
This is the result of a large-scale global survey conducted by market research company Wakefield Research on behalf of IT service provider ServiceNow. To the study room 900 Senior management And 8,100 office workers who work in organizations with more than 500 employees and are active in the financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, public and telecommunications sectors. Respondents came from Australia, Germany, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
“The global trend towards digitization shows what the future of work is like,” Bill McDermott said. Chief Executive Officer Enter ServiceNow after investigating. “Digital workflow is the way to complete business in this century. We will not return to the situation of COVID-19, because digital transformation is accelerating. New ways of working are becoming the norm, and we are on the eve of unprecedented innovation in workflow and workplace .”
Personal safety and organizational continuity
It is worth noting that 52% of Dutch employees worry that employers believe that organizational continuity is more important than allowing employees to return to the workplace safely. Even more striking is that a higher percentage of executives (58%) shared these concerns. This percentage is much higher than the European average of 37%, while the proportion of Dutch employees is equal to the European average.
In addition, almost half of the employees (46%) of companies and institutions in the Netherlands do not believe that their organizations are taking all necessary steps to ensure a safe return to the workplace.Again, the percentage is lower than Executives Higher: not less than 56%. In comparison, the European average for this topic is 32%.
The pros and cons of being forced to work from home
All managers and almost all employees (96%) in the Netherlands agree on one thing: working from home has undeniable related advantages. But this does not mean that there are no worries, because employees (78%) and managers (90%) have expressed their concerns:
- Executives are particularly concerned about service or production delays (62%), while employees are particularly concerned about the lack of collaboration between different departments (53%).
- Executives believe that the biggest benefit of being forced to work at home is an increased sense of personal responsibility to employees (56%). Dutch employees have the greatest benefit (62%) by reducing the time saved by commuting traffic.
Other notable results of the study are:
- 94% of executives in the Netherlands believe that the pandemic has changed the way we work. A slightly lower percentage of employees (87%) said that COVID-19 helped his organization create a better way of working.
- The vast majority of executives (94%) and employees (87%) stated that their organizations have adopted new ways of working faster than previously thought.
- Ninety-six percent of Dutch executives expect that changes in organizational execution due to the pandemic will save costs. They believe that these savings should be mainly invested in entering new markets (60%) and digital transformation (54%).
Adapting to the new reality brings greater challenges
In the Netherlands, 62% of executives and 50% of employees expect that adapting to the new reality will bring challenges far greater than challenges. Another complicating factor is that 84% of managers said that offline workflows still exist in their organization, such as approving documents, reporting security incidents, and requesting technical support. While progress is being made, three-quarters of Dutch companies and institutions do not yet have fully integrated systems for managing digital workflows.
Lack of confidence in the second rapid transformation
According to 86% of Dutch workers, the new system developed and implemented in response to the pandemic has brought new and better ways of working. However, these systems seem to be susceptible to the next major change, because many executives say they don’t want key departments (such as information technology, human resource management, and customer service) to develop and deploy new workflows within 30 days. Employees have the same concerns, because only a small percentage of employees believe that the IT department can implement the required changes within the set time frame.
Finding the right balance is the biggest challenge facing the organization
“COVID-19 enables European organizations to implement changes faster. And this happened at a level we have never seen before, and I really didn’t expect this to happen.” Michael Maas said , vice-president Northern Europe is in ServiceNow. “There is a lot of discussion about adapting to the new reality. However, for many companies and organizations, the reality is that only the current situation makes sense, and with it comes constant change.”
The main challenge for Dutch and European organizations is to find a balance between organizational continuity and the individual needs of employees. In addition, they must ensure that both areas are digitally prepared for the imminent change. Concentrating on digital work-no matter where it is done-is an important factor in finding this balance. ”
Transition from chaos to new sustainable methods
“This research was made when many organizations started to transition from the chaos of the initial stage of COVID-19 to developing new sustainable methods,” futurist Tom Cheesewright explained. “Unbelievable results have been achieved under extreme pressure. Hybrid technology has proven its value. However, there is still work to be done. Culture, work process and behavior must become part of the foundation of the new technology, as well as between employers and employees. The new social contract between China and the United States focuses on remote work.”
Photo: Pexels
.
#biggest #COVID19 #challenge #facing #organizations
More from Source