Australia’s post-COVID workforce: Shaping the path to recovery

Remote is the reality

COVID-19 revealed some surprising benefits of a dispersed workforce. Productivity increased as home-based workers won back time from their daily commute and harnessed tech solutions to streamline their workflow.

Adam Gregory, senior director of LinkedIn Talent Solutions for Asia-Pacific, believes it’s almost certain that remote work is here to stay. Globally, the volume of job searches using the “remote” filter on LinkedIn has increased by 60 per cent.

“There’s an opportunity emerging to move away from a fixed mindset around working from home, and debunking old assumptions that remote work would lead to productivity losses,” says Gregory.

Leading companies seem to agree. Australian tech giant Atlassian is one of several big players shifting permanently away from the office, with its new “TEAM Anywhere” policy.

“In the post-COVID world, WFA (work from anywhere) will be a new normal for many. Even as we look towards recovery, many workers will be more deliberate about when and why they go to the office,” says Atlassian work futurist Dom Price.

“TEAM Anywhere gives Atlassian employees the choice to work from any combination of home, office or igloo because this kind of flexibility in where and how we want to work is what will come to be expected of employers.”

Finding true north

Tomorrow’s successful companies will reinvent their structures around a clearly defined central purpose, says Hurst.

“This change means more than just flexible hours and working from home,” he adds. “It feels like a more fundamental shift, led by the question: what is the nature and purpose of our work in the first place?”

The best companies have learned to look beyond day-to-day, task-oriented office structures and the “where and when” of workflow, to focus on their defining goals.

It’s an attitude well suited to success, and again, Atlassian is leading the march. Under its new mission “outcomes not hours”, teams will reunite around their collective vision, with each individual choosing how they might best contribute to it.

Says Hurst: “Businesses are now focused far more on their culture and on the purpose of the organisation. It’s almost like this time has enabled us to take that step back and actually think about what is going to drive long-term success.”

Diversity is a crucial part of this changed picture. “A number one focus for so many of our customers at LinkedIn is diversity, and it’s about all kinds of abilities bringing strength and value,” says Gregory.

“Remote working as a pathway to the future brings into the equation talented people who perhaps aren’t as comfortable working in an office or a city or using public transport – for example, someone with visual disabilities or someone living with anxiety. Teams can draw on so many different talent pools to be potentially stronger than they were pre-COVID.”

The most recent LinkedIn data backs him up, showing that posts on diversity receive on average 125 per cent more engagement than the standard company post in Asia-Pacific; and in Australia, engagement is 208 per cent above average for posts that speak about a company’s values in relation to diversity.

Win through wellbeing

Stress and uncertainty have placed heavy strain on the mental health of workforces. At the same time, teams working remotely experienced a new intimacy, glimpsing each other’s home environments and personal lives.

Kindness, trust and empathy became key to navigating these changed circumstances – and they’ll remain essential in a future where workplace wellbeing matters like never before.

For Gregory, this means leaders need to bring greater compassion to their roles. “There’s such a need now to manage the whole individual,” he says.

“It’s very easy when you’re in the office, and everyone’s got their game face on, to think about the person just in their role. But now you need to understand much more about what drives and motivates people.”

Ed Hurst agrees: “The organisations and individuals who are successful in the post-COVID world will be the ones who recognise empathy, caring, inspiration, listening, and are enabled to develop those muscles and mindsets really effectively.”

Wellbeing-focused companies will reimagine roles to suit their people, predicts Gregory. “There might be more job sharing, and the coming together of certain roles, marrying different skill sets. We could also see the advent of entirely new roles – and, in fact, Chief Wellbeing Officer would be an important one.”

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