It’s fair to say that no one saw 2020 coming.
It could also be fair to say, though – that it has forced business to develop and change at a rapid pace. Some change not desired, others a welcome relief.
For a lot of employees, this is Working From Home.
Businesses that previously dug their heels in when an employee asked to work from home because they had to go to parent-teacher conferences, emergency vet runs or just time away from the (sometimes) chaos of the office: are being forced to change their ways. Some workers have welcomed WFH as their productivity skyrockets!
The way we work and conduct business has changed drastically over the past 60 years, but no more drastic than the last 6 months. Gone are the days of fax machines, landline telephones and clocking off at 5pm for the day with no digital notifications of work until the next morning at 9am when they’re pulling the lid off their typewriter. Now we have 24/7 slack conversations on the go, emails late into the night, direct mobile numbers on email signatures, and an ever-increasing pace of digital advancement. 
This digital landscape combined with working from home expectations means you’re clocking on in the living room, juggling home school math questionnaires, and trying to dodge the 8 ZOOM calls in the diary.
For businesses that were equipped for a digital transition to online team building and business management, they have thrived as they transition to WFH with almost no impact on business.
Others, unfortunately, are not in the same boat, so reluctant to turn to digital and allow flexible working arrangements mean there has been a mass disruption in their business and their staff engagement. But this force – may be a force for good! Digital advancement once avoided, is now a must-have and hopefully a pleasant surprise to business management and staff happiness.
As it turns out – if you give your staff the flexibility they need and the trust they deserve, they will in return deliver and retention may even increase!
Here at Swoop Digital, given our already flexible working arrangements, it’s been business as usual. Sharing daily updates via Slack, joining ZOOM calls to stay in touch with the team, and delivering quality outputs, from SEO services in Melbourne to Inbound Marketing Solutions with HubSpot.
The way we work has changed, and so the way our staff work must too.