We were just getting used to the “new normal” when all of a sudden more uncertainty started to emerge. Are we open? Are we closed? Are our kids going to learn in the classroom or at home? Are companies going to ask their staff to return to the office or continue to work from home? Etc. etc., etc.

What do we know? Google, Facebook, Amazon, Capital One, Danaher, retailers like Costco, Walmart, and others are extending work-from-home policies to September and sometimes far beyond that – some to 2021.

Before the coronavirus struck, 8 percent of all wage and salaried employees worked from home at least one day a week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; about 2 percent worked from home full time. In a matter of days, the Covid 19 pandemic change the numbers telecommuting from marginal to significant in many parts of the country.

Now, even as states like New York, California, Florida, Georgia and Illinois roll out phased re-openings, companies see a future for remote work. Gartner, the research firm and consultant, said its clients — mostly large firms that have little direct interaction with the public — expected as many as half their employees to work at home at least part time.

Zillow, the online real estate firm based in Seattle said that its 5,000 employees could work at home until 2021.

Three months ago, Zillow had traditional views about the workplace. About 2 percent of its employees worked remotely; another 4 percent worked from home part of the time. Everyone else went in every day.

“I don’t see those numbers ever going back to where they were,” Dan Spaulding, Zillow’s chief people officer, said in a recent interview. “Our bias against working from home has been completely exploded.” He said employees have stayed engaged while at home and the company was “not seeing any discernible drop in productivity.”

The question is, how is this “new behavior” going to affect the way we conduct our business? We need to rethink how we are going to participate in this new work environment. Is there a place for us to provide goods or services to these employer and / or employees as they get more comfortable every day with the new “working from home” situations?

72 Chocolate Collection has partnered with a number of other leading snack brands to offer snack, gift and appreciation boxes that companies are shipping direct to their employees as a way keeping up moral, reminding the employee that just because they are remote they are still connected to the company and their cohorts. Companies are also using them a way to say Thank You to their teams and to communicate to their staff that they know times are “unique” but they will adjust, and they will prevail!

How are you going to adjust…how are you going to prevail? In the fluid business environment we find ourselves in, you can’t just stand still and get run over by circumstances!

Think through how you can use your available skill sets and resources to maximize the opportunities. These opportunities may be different than you could have imagined 6 months ago, but it doesn’t mean they are bad, just different.

Then you have to EXECUTE, EXECUTE, EXECUTE.

If we can help in any way or if you want to learn more about 72 Chocolate’s at home snack box program, reach out to [email protected].