Workforce Shift after COVID-19 Outbreak: Adapting to Evolving Workplace and Work-Life Settings

Abstract

As the pandemic swept the world, the workplaces have evolved to create new work conditions to mitigate the spread of coronavirus. A large proportion of the workforce was unable to commute to work, especially in metropolitan cities in Australia like Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane. While society did mentally prepare for the significant risk, most employers were forced to accept and adapt quickly to the norms of work from home (WFH). Undoubtedly, most organizations were reticent to have employees working from remote arrangements but unprecedented challenges due to the pandemic have compelled the worldwide workforce to experiment with WFH thus increasing overall flexibility. Traditional and prevailing models of on-site offices and workplaces are now replaced by new working and workplace strategies through the deployment of existing technologies. However, the current situation provides a unique insight into how future human resource policies and procedures can adapt to the WFH approach and their effect on the employer and employee relationship. The critical insight and related recommendations will also assist in investigating, re-imagining, re-improving, and re-inventing the work arrangements and work processes in response to exceptional circumstances. The sudden advent of the pandemic drastically shifted the workplace and workforce paradigm of workplaces in both developed and developing countries. In major Australian cities, organizational practices and workplace shifts adapted to changes to fulfill the need for safety by redesigning physical spaces, rethinking infrastructure changes to promote flexibility, and sustainability, and fostering work-life balance for most employees. Using a critical approach and exploratory research, the study investigates how the work arrangements will break the inertia of past approaches in human resource management, the effect on hierarchy and gender roles due to flexible workplace designs, and the role of technology in improving learning, and collaboration among employers and employees. This chapter will elaborate on the workplace dynamics due to the involvement of digital strategy, remote sensing, and the effect on the happiness and productivity of employees due to new trial forms of the workplace. Considerably, the future is uncertain, and neither what is known today, nor could have been before the COVID-19 situation. As a long-term strategic goal to sustain productivity, people, and profits, businesses need to create a good balance between choice and work flexibility. Organizations, businesses, and employers need to be more inclusive, mature, and novel in this era of evolving workplaces. A shift from futuristic ideas to standard practices with improved operating models is the need of the hour. It could be achieved through effective change management skills, constant monitoring, and pivot based on what works and what hinders the growth and sustainability of the workplaces and workforce.