The Business Exchange Swindon & Wiltshire Edition 49: June/July 2020 | Page 25

COMMUNITY VOICES
landscape left in the
doing their best to
years will affect them.
xchange
Mark Adams, Director, Mintivo
and TikTock and expect major releases from
the big names like Microsoft and Google.
Less travel in working lives
People will work from home more often.
We’ll get closer to a 50:50 balance between
home working and office. Of course, that
doesn’t work for all business, particularly
retail or manufacturing where you have to
be hands-on., but office environments will
become quieter, smaller places with more
hotdesking when staff are on-premise.
Does that spell the end for the travelling
salesperson? Why would you send a
salesperson on a 400-mile round-trip for a
meeting that they could hold over a Zoom
or Microsoft Teams? If they worked from
home, they could get through many more
meetings, be less tired and have more time
with their family. The roads will be quieter
and the planet a little less polluted as a
result. Of course, that will not work for every
business, but I suspect many will be asking
that question. And if one salesperson can do
more sales calls remotely, will you need so
many of them?
Relationships between retained and
furloughed staff will be strained
There have been some tough decisions
for businesses. Decisions that needed to
be made quickly and with the government
help, many staff have found themselves
furloughed. Have we thought about the
impact this has on the team as we bring
everyone back together? There’s a risk
of resentment between those that were
furloughed, and those that weren’t. As
managers, we should be vigilant for the
future impact on the relationships between
colleagues.
No one knows what the future holds.
Adapt to cope with the unexpected
The fact is that nobody knows what the
future holds for business after Covid-19. The
landscape will certainly change. What you
can do however is adapt your business to
cope with situations like this. The technology
is there for all of us to use, you just need to
utilise it in the right way.
For more info:
www.mintivo.co.uk
@mintivo
THE BUSINESS EXCHANGE 2020 13