‘Great Companies Are Built in Tough Times’: How Partners Are Thriving in 2020

… not the end of the world. But it is new and it’s challenging, that we’re dealing with it.”

Nancy Hammervik, EVP, industry relations at CompTIA, agreed.

CompTIA’s Nancy Hammervik

“Going through things you never thought you would go through will take you places you never thought you would get to,” she said.

All the participants agreed that there have been [some] silver linings to COVID-19. These include new approaches to working they would like to stay post-pandemic.

For Watts, it’s flexible working.

“I think a lot of companies are run by older people who have a low level of trust, or it doesn’t suit their management philosophy. Those people are dinosaurs. We need to embrace it. I’m a great believer in the office, and collaboration and building teams. But flexible working is good from a mental health perspective; [employees] can prioritise some of their personal stuff, more family time. It’s also better for the environment, and ultimately those people have more money in their pocket  — and that’s a good thing.”

Watts admitted the payoff for more flexible working is that some businesses will suffer.

“That’s tough, but the world keeps moving on,” said Watts. “We’re all doing jobs that didn’t exist 10 years ago probably, so it’ll be the same there too.”

Whittles cited the work-life balance.

“We took the opportunity to walk at lunchtime, which we never would have done in the office. We bought electric bikes and we were cycling around, and we really re-evaluated how much time we were spending on the business. I think that’s something we should all take forward, because people are very frazzled, and at the end of their tether. So a work-life balance [should be] here to stay.”

Similarly, Duke noted that people are now respecting others’ time more now.

“I’ve noticed people seem to be more understanding of when people are busy and valuing people’s time more. Meetings are more efficient; if you have to cut early or have to leave on time, people are more understanding about it. They understand you have more commitments to deal with; everybody’s time is stretched during this time. But the flexibility of working from home allows for outside influences to become more inside influences now. I really think that’s a huge benefit and I hope that it remains once all of this is over.”