Are you ready for the new way of working?

As the pandemic starts to come under control due to the vaccination programmes worldwide, you can’t avoid the business media stories around working patterns and how various international businesses are adjusting for the future: all working from home, all back in the office, and any number of steps in between. The big question is – are you ready for the future workplace?

Due to the pandemic virtually all of us have been forced into homeworking, which also means employees having the ability to work flexibly around family demands and working location. This also means that you may find many of your staff do not want to go back to being based full-time in the office. Asset Management firm, Schroder’s, announced in August 2020 that it had embraced flexible working business-wide. Schroder’s highlight the potential long-term productivity benefits of flexibility, but also recognise the need for collaboration and connection among teams.

A hybrid way of working seems to be the best thing since sliced bread, but is there a catch?

Adopting a hybrid approach to work could help reduce costs with fewer people in offices at any one time, as well as decreasing the amount employees have to commute. But can your firm retain the important culture and community that is so crucial to a people business, when people spend less time in the office?

Do you have the right systems to enable hybrid working permanently?

Even though many of us have found remote working effective enough during this time, in order to make remote working more permanent, organisations need to invest in the correct systems to enable permanent hybrid working.

It is no secret that the trust and corporate services market has been left behind when adopting digital technology, but this has quickly reversed due to the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It's clear, however, the industry will want to avoid any impact on creativity and the production of new ideas, that could otherwise impact business performance. Many have invested in cloud technologies to help with increased remote working as well as video meeting software to allow at least some human interaction during this time. We recently interviewed Thibault Chollet from Deloitte Luxembourg, who highlighted that COVID-19 was the accelerator for technology adoption within the corporate services industry.

Traditionally, trusts and corporate services firms have been focused on automating the back-office tasks and automating routine compliance tasks, but recently, attentions have turned to digitalising front-office and customer-facing processes. TrustQuay Portal was built and launched in record time to support organisations needing to digitalise their client engagement model rapidly.

The new normal

Whilst home-working was a necessity throughout the pandemic as it was simply about surviving and doing what is necessary to maintain the client experience, you now need to think about what the new business-as-usual looks like. So what actions can you take to prepare yourself for the new way of working? Here's some pointers...

• Strike the right balance - take into account what your employees would like going forward along with what is best for your business. 
• Alter your office space to complement hybrid working, for example, incorporate a "flex-desking" system
• Ensure you have the right systems to improve the digital experience that your clients are demanding as well as supporting the ways your employees want to work.

TrustQuay NavOne and 5Series have helped our customers throughout the pandemic as our products are cloud-ready, and can support the rapid digitalisation and automation firms are looking to achieve. What was once nice-to-have capability is now a must-have functionality as firms look to support their future operating model.