Employee morale and productivity have taken a serious hit since the COVID-19 pandemic began rampaging around the world. At this point, there isn’t an industry in the world that has been left unaffected by the havoc that the pandemic has unleashed. A countless number of businesses have vanished off the map without a trace and millions of people have lost their jobs. Innovation is the need of the hour and we need to create a new path if we want to escape this economic limbo.

Consumer behavior has changed drastically during the pandemic which has affected the demand for different products and services. This calls for sudden changes and adaptations in the organizational framework. To accomplish this goal, however, the organizations need to reskill the employees with the skills that will be necessary to handle business in the new normal.

Let us discuss this in detail.

Identify the essential skills that will propel the growth of your organization in the post-pandemic phase

It is the duty of the executives to brainstorm and predict the skills that will have a major effect on the functionality of their business in the new era. They will need to put themselves in their employees’ shoes and imagine how their duties will change and what would be expected of them in the new normal.

Let’s say you’re in the business of product retail. Since the pandemic has made people averse to shopping in stores, you may now have to mold your business model and start a division for home delivery. Therefore, the role of the tech team and logistics team will become more important. You may need to hire more personnel or you may have to transfer personnel from one department to another. For the best results, this should be followed by providing training to the employees regarding their new or slightly altered job roles.

New skills for the post-pandemic phase

If you want to compete with top businesses in the new normal, you will have to equip your employees with new skills. Following are the skills that you should focus on:

• The world is becoming more and more dependent on digital technology and the pandemic has given a further boost to the digital revolution. In the new normal, all employees must be digitally astute.
• Innovation is the need of the hour and the employees need to have cognitive skills to be able to respond to this need.
• Collaboration and teamwork will play a key role in the future. Therefore, the employees should have strong collaborative skills.

Things are changing rapidly and the industry shape-shifts entirely within a blink-of-an-eye. As such equipping the employees with resiliency skills is important to ensure they do not get overwhelmed by sudden changes and are able to respond correctly.

Start early

Going through the scaling and skilling process, you’re bound to encounter obstacles. These are uncharted waters that we’re navigating and strategies will have to be customized on-the-go. Therefore, the earlier you start, the better you’ll fare in the long run. You will have time for trial-and-error, and you will be able to make necessary changes and adjust strategies as per the needs of your business.

Following these strategies, you can give your business a chance at surviving the new normal.