Although the COVID 19 pandemic has been concerning, there will be many future benefits from new behaviours that have occurred, through necessity, because of the pandemic.
The obvious one is the way many of us will work and interact with both colleagues and clients in the future. The Zoom phenomenon of meeting by video link is a game changer that has become not only a trusted way to meet but an incredibly efficient one.
It is the efficiency and flexibility of not having to attend a meeting location that is the real game changer. We all only have so many minutes in a day and indeed our lives and having to travel to meetings is as big a waste of time as some of the meetings we have to attend.
The flow on effect of this is the decline of the “bums on seats” mentality by many employers that have previously not known any other way of operating. Through necessity, they have been forced to adapt to new ways and most employers or managers I have spoken to have been very pleased and surprised at how well it has worked. The payoff for both employers and employees is considerable, especially for large employers of office-based staff.
For employers, it is the ability to reduce office overheads and get creative with ways to collaborate they hadn’t needed to previously think about. For employees, the ability to work from anywhere with flexibility of work hours, with the employers blessing, provides so many quality of life benefits. Especially those with a young family, which is always a juggle and those who previously had to commute long distances to work.
For us, as sellers of lifestyle property, we have seen a significant increase of buyer interest on the basis of these new, remote working practices. One of the previous constraints for many was justifying buying a property on the coast when they felt they would not get to use it very often. Now they can have a long weekend every weekend or move completely and commute back to the city when only absolutely necessary. Many have also worked out, through being locked up under stay at home restrictions, where they do not want to be and the search for space or somewhere to escape to, has become more important to them.