Commercial Director

It was December 2019 and Christmas was near. Everything seemed peaceful and the Christmas spirit was upon us. We were fooled… We were not greeted with the cheering and enjoyable moments we know from Christmas time with family, no instead we were met with quarantines, lockdowns, and self-isolations. Total opposite of what we knew Christmas time was about.  This situation caused millions of employees worldwide to self-isolate in their homes. At first, it didn’t seem that bad to stay home with your closest, and to a certain extent, some people could see it as just ‘an extra Christmas break’. Sooner than later, though, we learned that this was the total opposite.

The pandemic has pushed companies to rapidly adapt to the new situation. They had to adapt to a new type of behavior within their working field, which would fit the new pandemic scheme and would see fit to stick to the change. These changes are clearly having a huge impact on labor markets. Not only after the pandemic but also before the pandemic. We saw companies completely shutting down, some of them permanently, others were able to change their behaviors and develop into an occupational chameleon.The pandemic has pushed many companies to rapidly adopt new behaviors. The pandemic definitely pushed the company’s to accelerate digitalization and in the middle of this global pandemic, it rose to a level not seen before and created a new era, the era of remote work.

The new era showcased four-to-five times more remote work than before the pandemic. The ‘new era’ also taught us about a change in recruitment and it furthermore showed the opportunity for remote work across borders. Companies not willing to adapt to change clearly slowly fell apart. Remote-work companies, on the other hand, hired great employees that were needed, and with the understanding of ‘remote-work’, they were no longer chained to the idea that work needed to be drivable distance. They could simply work from anywhere, and this created a great value proposition for employees.

Employees are one the most valued resource and it’s partly driven by a huge and growing demand for them. The fact that we are in the time where we’re experiencing a career transition where employees change jobs more often. It makes the companies more vulnerable but still gives them opportunities, if they are willing to set up attractive work frames, that would attract employees. I think the reason for that, is the notion of individualism, that people are more driven by personal development, and that could be met by a change in position. Also Entry-and-exit barriers in companies have been reduced in recent years and therefore, I believe these changes have been expected to a certain degree, and the pandemic effect just accelerated what was already on the rise.

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