Glad to have you back between these lines.
After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day, so our journey towards the new normal couldn’t come to an end overnight. Bold similarity, isn’t it? But I assure you it sums up effectively.
The previous article of our series uncovered most of our urgent reaction to the immediate implications of Covid-19. We relocated the existing working methods and settle them into remote contexts; as a company powered primarily by people, we focused on spreading empathy among our teams as they experienced the shift to remote working.

Building a digital workspace

Needless to repeat, Covid-19 pandemic put organisations around the world to the very test, clearly and inevitably revolutionising the traditional concept of workplace and working hours. Yet, if it is true that work as we know it has reshaped, it is also true that the new normal opens up to a plethora of new opportunities and challenges in terms of building a collaborative organisation, where people are engaged and work in a safe, flexible environment.

Indeed, while a change in perspective is happening, this crisis requires a shift in mindset; it demands to a grow a vision based on the awareness that we must build and strengthen a digital workspace pushing the envelope beyond our company’s borders.

This attitude led us to invest – rather that adapt – in a recovery strategy of workplace and work-life management driven by greater adaptability, greater flexibility, greater collaboration and community. These are the essentials of our journey.

Over the past year, more than 90% of our people have worked remotely; today, about 15% of people are alternating between working in the office and working remotely. Whether from home or at their desks they are all working in a more digital environment on a daily basis, experiencing what it means to be part of a hybrid, remote team.

Online collaboration spotlight

To deal with the crisis digital came to the rescue since the very beginning. The use of business communication platforms has accelerated quickly in the course of 2020, being the main tool to provide people with to remain connected while staying safe. However, what was meant to be a short-term measure, actually brought multiple and significant benefits, simplified internal and external communication and will be playing a crucial role as we navigate towards the new normal.

Going forward, these platforms will be further implemented to offer secure, stable and high-quality services for virtual cooperation, meetings and events and to support social interactions between people. On the other hand, it will be vital to train people to develop the necessary skills to work effectively in a hybrid model.

In the post pandemic world, corporate success can’t prescind from hybrid business models, powered by highly digitalised processes where physical and virtual spaces are no longer perceived as polar opposites, but rather as two halves of the same experience.

At this stage of our journey towards the new normal, we reorganise our physical and virtual workspaces, we rethink our offices to favour the benefits of the new collaborative methods, we reskill to create one, integral, seamless space for the days to come.