Over the Rainbow: 3 Pots of Gold to cherish when the rain stops

What will be the legacy of the coronavirus pandemic on our work and home environment and the way we go about our daily business?

On 23 March 2020, when we first went into Lockdown, we were forced into a seismic shift in the way we operate, personally and professionally. We underwent years of digital, social and emotional transformation within a matter of months. Some coped better than others, but undoubtedly nobody coped all of the time. We needed support, pick-me-ups and hope. For us, nothing has symbolised hope more throughout this time than the RAINBOW.

The pandemic has had a monumental impact on many different facets of home and work life, and the vast majority of those impacts we are sure we would all like to disappear as quickly as they came. However, in this short blog, we wanted to touch on my 3 Pots of Gold that we believe will create a better, more sustainable working environment when the rain stops and sun shines once more.

1. An accelerated, heightened, focus on mental health and wellbeing

Mental health is an issue many organisations cannot afford to ignore. It’s the leading cause of sickness absence in the UK, costing an average of £1,035 per employee per year. This has long since been the case but only a select few forward-thinking businesses were doing anything notable about it.

Fast forward to 2021 and the focus on mental health and wellbeing has risen astronomically. At the end of 2019 we were starting to launch Wellbeing @ Wilson, our wellbeing charter, but the time and effort invested through 2020 was far in excess of anything we could have imagined and we have achieved so much in terms of bringing mental health and wellbeing to the forefront of our culture. We now have the team, processes and roadmap in place to increase the visibility and importance of our employee’s overall wellbeing, encompassing both physical and mental health. In support of this we share ideas, support colleagues and implement cultural improvements to create an environment where each individual can flourish to be the best they can be.

2. Flexibility

In April 2020, 46.6% of people in employment did some work at home, with 80%+ of those because of Covid-19, where employees would otherwise have been in an office or work environment. The pandemic has changed attitudes and accessibility of home working.

There is inevitably a balance to find but elements of home working will be here to stay, allowing greater flexibility to employees, time back in the week from not commuting and a simple change to daily routines that breaks monotony and creates empowerment. It also significantly widens the resource pool, which may cause a shift change in the way we think about recruitment.

3. Community Spirit

Across all walks of life, we have seen this pandemic bring us together, the true power of human empathy being a hugely positive output from a terrible situation. We have connected with neighbours’, family and colleagues in ways that we never may have done before.

At Wilson Partners, the team feels stronger than ever before through the genuinely unique experiences we have shared in pulling through this crisis. We are sure we all would have relished more face-to-face time, but we have found different ways to engage and interact that have strengthened the bonds between us.

Trust, relationships, and rapport are very difficult to form but are not easily broken. Throughout this last year we have created sustainable, stronger connections spanning all areas of our relationship circles.

The pandemic has been a period of unprecedented, unparalleled, and enforced change. However, there is still a lot of change to come; change and opportunity that should be within our gift to grasp and embrace to create a better future. There are many reasons to remain positive and we must emerge from the pandemic having learnt valuable lessons that will make us better and more resilient in the future. At Wilson Partners, this is certainly something we are committed to and we would be delighted to discuss your experiences and your future plans for your business and your employees. We are all stronger together.