Workplace 2020

I was working at Appirio. Jason Averbook was talking about how we have to get ready for the future of work. There were webinars. Roadshows. Blogs. Tshirts. Bumper stickers. 2020 was a year to be ready for what the future of work may look like. Going from “The Office” to “The Jetsons” we hadn’t seen a date so talked about since Y2K.

Be careful what you ask for. Despite all the marketing. The hype. The chotskies given out. More progress has been made on the future of work from 3/11/2020 to now than had been made in the 7 years previous. We went from 9% of the workforce working at home to nearly 42%. Organizational agility was forced upon us. Digital transformation is beginning to take a front seat. The need for many business functions has never been more important.

So what about returning to work? Many employees will expect to work where, how, and when they want to. The future is now. As daunting as this will be, this can be solved with proper collaboration amongst many departments, likely powered by a technology like ServiceNow. That’s the only way you will know for certain that everyone’s return to work...heck life...will go smoothly. Employee readiness surveys, employee health screening, workplace safety management, PPE inventory management, and an easy way to govern will separate the smooth ones from the “head scratching, do they really know what they are doing” ones.

This is a once in a career moment. For all of us. It’s time to lead boldly. Shepherd everyone to the now of work. What would George Jetson do?