Fact checked by Eddie Regan, BiP Solutions Principal Procurement Consultant
Most remote workers don’t want to return to the office, so it’s essential to consider the work environment changes that businesses must adapt to. The post-pandemic work environment is an obstacle with various challenges to overcome.
Post-pandemic work is almost synonymous, at this point, with a standard or ordinary day job. It’s become the new norm, and employees seem to love it.
It’s a situation that makes an employee’s life easier. However, businesses need to change how they organise many things. Including their infrastructure and the strategies they’ve used for engaging various markets. Keep reading to learn six key things to remember when engaging in the post-pandemic work environment.
Analysing Post Pandemic Work
Careers that involve some form of manual labour, for the most part, are impossible to do from home. For example, repairing a sewage line is hard to do from one’s living room.
However, most careers that almost exclusively require technology are usually doable from home. Translators, writers, artists, designers, and coders are some of the most common examples.
Since they’re no longer commuting to the office, businesses have to alter many variables. This includes how they hire, organise, and manage their teams. They also have to change private and public tender, spend analysis coordination, and how to approach market leads.
Hiring for Remote Work
There’s a lot of pressure on HR leaders to fill positions with individuals with the right skills. However, the lack of an in-person interview can make this much more difficult.
Body language is still readable, but video calls aren’t comparable to face-to-face conversation. Additionally, the metrics for how capable an individual is have changed. Where, previously, degrees and certificates were reliable, they’ve all but gone out the window.
Given that most were required to study from home, a wide variety of careers were moved online. This, in turn, resulted in far fewer individuals seeking certification from recognised institutions. So, HR has to do a lot of guesswork, increasing the popularity of internships.
Remote Work Post Pandemic
It’s worth reiterating that remote work is akin to a dream for many. It was hard to imagine a world where accountants and project managers would work in their pyjamas from the comfort of their home offices. It’s now the reality we live in, though.
The comfort that remote work provides employees and freelancers is great. But it adds difficulties for employers and businesses. This comes in many forms, and enthusiasm and human connections are harder to communicate via video calls.
Planning meetings is even more of a chore when a company has employees worldwide. Project managers now have to reinvent how they engage their teams. Along with the strategies they use when communicating with clients.
Changes with Private Tender
It’s safe to say that private tender hasn’t seen many changes. Given its nature, where any kind of tendering isn’t obligatory, it maintains a similar modus operandi post-pandemic.
However, potential contracts that go out to tender are seeing slower processing. There’s a slight delay, a delay that almost mimics the latency of an online connection.
However, it is more complicated than ever to determine whether an opportunity is real or if a buyer is using the process to pressure suppliers. Again, much of this leans on the fact that many conversations and agreement forms have moved online. But, this was somewhat the case before the pandemic.
Public Tender Changes
The public procurement process is faster post-pandemic. Suppliers and buyers have more platforms than ever to find or post contracts. This, of course, does result in more competitive rates. But, a free market usually adjusts over time.
The public tender has also seen the addition of complicated steps and changes in how invitations to tender are structured. This is resulting, ever so slightly, in a more lengthy process. However, competitive rates are allowing for more efficient public projects.
Coordination of Spend Analysis
Data aside, communication sits at the heart of spending analysis. Multiple teams have to provide input on the following:
- Identifying spend data
- Gathering spend data
- Analysing and categorising spend data
- Grouping spend data
While it’s just one part of spending management, it’s essential to consider that visualising data is now more complex in some ways. Since it can take longer, there’s a delay in improving contract compliance and cycle times.
Sure, spend visibility and data are easy to quantify. But the post-pandemic work environment makes it harder to stay fast and versatile with multiple outlets.
Needless to say, this has a substantial and direct impact on all company sectors. It’s tough to manage savings. And businesses are seeing more management expenditures. Revenue opportunities are not meeting expected results.
New Approach to Market Leads
It’s natural for the approach to market leads to change over time. There’s no one-fits-all solution to turning an interest into a purchase or investment.
Guiding prospects down a sales funnel is a tricky process now. Remote work means most stay at home and spends even more time on the web. Many more companies have to invest in SEO and certain online ad placements to generate leads, nowadays.
You can see this in changes to the following variables:
- Promotional efforts
- Types of content
- Subscriptions
- Promotional tools
Post-Pandemic Work Environment
There are two sides to the new post-pandemic work environment. This includes changes in how an employee experiences their day-to-day work. Also, the adjustments that businesses have to make.
For employees, remote work post-pandemic is most often a boon. It’s more comfortable, saves time, and allows more flexible work hours. However, communication can become difficult, and there’s more opportunity for making mistakes.
Businesses seem to have taken the biggest hit, and have seen few benefits overall. They have to readjust and adapt to a plethora of factors. This includes how they hire workers. They also change how they deal with private and public tender, coordinate spending, and approach market leads.
Contact us if you’re interested in winning more public or private sector tenders. You can also ask questions you might have about Tracker Intelligence. You can fill out the form, or try out our free demo!
