IT professionals and users made the swift transition to remote working and many were able to continue their operations with little interruption.
Following this, some companies noted that productivity actually grew despite concerns that it would take a hit with this arrangement.
For years, the idea of a remote and distributed workforce was anticipated to be a part of our everyday workplace operations. But the pandemic accelerated us nearly a decade into the future.
While the pandemic is still far from being over, it has become increasingly clear what a post-pandemic workplace will look like for IT workers and professionals across various industries.
“There is a ripple effect from this,” said Suzanne Adnams, analyst at Gartner. “It creates a whole bunch of management challenges no one has had to deal with before. If only part of your workforce is coming into the office, what does that do about your office space? Do you assign a permanent workplace to someone who will be there only two days a week? What is the role of an office anymore? If it’s not the primary workplace of all the organization, then where does that lead?”
One of the most significant trends that is emerging from this grand remote experiment is the model of the hybrid workplace. This allows employees to work from home, in the office or from anywhere throughout the work week.
This shift also means big changes to how IT specialists operate, from the adoption of remote working tools, cloud enablement software, advanced security protocols, new methods of collaboration and more.