CHANGES ACCELERATED BY TELEWORKING

The quarantines caused by the covid-19 have caused worldwide the implementation of accelerated changes in the ways we have to work, study, contact, buy and do business, in a way unprecedented in the recent history of the global economy.

People and organizations have had to take on significant challenges to ensure the continuity of operations and even survival itself, resorting to various technological tools that we already had at hand, but whose implementation was progressing at a slower rate than expected.

Perhaps the most notorious and specific case has been that of teleworking, because although it was an option available for several years before the pandemic, it was only used by less than 10% of companies, governments and organizations worldwide, according to the International Labor Organization.

Teleconferencing, marketing, customer and supplier relationship management, project development, file disposition, and teamwork applications were already widely available before Covid emerged, but they were not widely used.

Now, the needs arising from the pandemic have forced the use of these resources to accelerate, turning into stars companies such as Zoom - the teleconferencing application - whose sales increased 326% and reached 2.6 billion dollars in 2020.

But the reality of telecommuting and the new digital environment are not limited only to technological capabilities, but have created challenges regarding the management of leadership in companies and creativity in responding to challenges such as the well-being of workers and the strengthening of customer relationship.

Management challenges refer to the use of new instruments and forms of leadership in teleworking to achieve successful results in organizations with the applications of tools such as the management of productive time based on results; the management of assertive communication and decision-making based on metrics and data.

The creativity challenges point to the need to support responses to emergencies arising from the pandemic. It is a good time to show that other ways of doing things through teleworking can be as efficient or more efficient than face-to-face ones.

In particular, many companies have had to resort to strong innovation in emotional and logistical support for teleworking, which implies from guaranteeing minimum equipment, adequate connection and the establishment of conditions that guarantee the safety and well-being of the worker who performs their tasks. from home.

Finally, although not last in importance, is the development of adequate communication channels with customers. It is not a matter of simply using technological and teleworking tools to manage the results already achieved, but of learning to reestablish ties of trust, mutual support and recognition of needs with our clients.

Although, during the first months of the pandemic, many companies and organizations focused on rebuilding and adapting the mechanisms for communication and understanding with customers. Hence, a good part of the efforts focused on the operations of the customer's call centers and via WhatsApp, as well as the modification of the web pages to guarantee maintaining contact with customers.

Now, into 2021, many organizations have discovered that this process of maintaining communication with customers and responding to marketing results was not enough; but it also requires a redesign of many of the processes to revitalize the relationship with customers: what to do to attract new consumers? How to improve feedback on product quality? How can we keep up to date with the enormous flow of information about our sectors of influence? In short, a series of new challenges that lead us to think creatively and ingeniously in answers and solutions that allow the relationship with the client to be placed at the center of the work of our organizations.