Companies have had to adjust their every day operations in order to abide by physical distancing guidelines. This includes staggering start and finish times, limiting occupancy and adjusting shift rotations to reduce the size of groups interacting together.

Moving forward, companies will need to make the shift towards more flexible working arrangements and away from “presenteeism” in order to stay up-to-date with changing work culture.

“I think that we shouldn’t miss the opportunity that we’ve seen now, of people being able to work more flexibly, and actually implement that in the workplace,” said Liz Truss, the Women and Equalities Minister. “I’m also interested in the idea of how we can change the culture of offices to move away from presenteeism to move towards more flexible working, and to integrate families more in the lives we’ll lead. I think people are more open about the role of family life in the workplace than they were before and I think that’s a positive change.”

Workplaces should focus on gaining the confidence and stability within employees, as well as guaranteeing them income, hours, an actual work-life balance and the flexibility that allows them to focus on health and wellbeing.

For instance, Crown Workforce Management Consultants helps companies adopt flexible working arrangements so they can analyze and understand their demand profiles, design shift patterns to boost productivity and work-life balance, and help manage flexible work solutions using Crown Solutions that helps monitor hours, occupancy that helps them map out their day-to-day needs.