Returning to the new world of work

a practical guide for business leaders

There is no doubt Covid-19 is the biggest event to have shocked the business world since the global financial crisis. In a tremendous effort of maintaining business continuity while at the same time ensuring their staff’s safety, organisations made swift changes to the way they work. This led to the biggest remote work experiment in history.

Now we are at a point where many organisations are beginning to imagine life after lockdown. Amid unprecedented global job losses, concerns about transport infrastructure and the continuing need for workplace social distancing, businesses are launching plans to return to the office. But when they do, what will the new world of work look like? Robert Walters surveyed over 2000 global organisations to ask exactly this. We wanted to understand how businesses responded to Covid-19, what they really think about remote working, how they plan to return to the office and - most importantly - what their vision is for the new world of work.

Whilst it is hard to look beyond the next six months, due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic, this guide is designed to give business leaders an overview of organisations’ collective learnings. It also provides an insight into what options are available in the short to medium-term, whilst the long-term future of work is being considered.