As the New Year dawns, with the added joys of lockdown #3, you might be forgiven for thinking it’s a rather grey and uninspiring dawn. However, here at 9-2-3, we’ve been thinking about the months and years to come and we’re feeling hopeful about the post-pandemic landscape for businesses; there are definitely signs of a brighter future shining through the clouds.

Let’s take a step back from the current crisis, just for a moment, and try to remember that most elusive of things – the pre-Covid world. That time when, across the country, we travelled to work on trains and buses with Other People, sat in traffic jams, and felt obliged to start every Monday morning enquiring about our colleagues’ weekends. It seems a world away, doesn’t it? In the best possible way, maybe it is. For some years now, individual companies and managers have had to make decisions on the ground about how they can implement flexible and remote working, with limited structural support in place. Perhaps that’s about to change? Intriguingly, it looks as though going forwards, governments may be playing a much bigger part in the flexible working revolution. The Irish government is launching a new, remote-working app, showing co-working spaces and digital hubs across the nation. It’ll help employees to find working spaces available to them in their local areas and find a better work-life balance. It’ll help businesses to reduce their real estate costs, increase employee retention rates and source talent from a wider geographical area. Meanwhile, the Welsh government is also promoting a new remote working strategy; they want 30 per cent of workers in Wales to be able to work remotely in the post-Covid world, and they think that this new model of local remote working hubs could be a catalyst to breathe new life into communities. It’ll be interesting to see whether these commitments really do lead to structural change, and whether Westminster follows suit.

Finally, the New Year is a time when many of us start to think about making changes to our teams and our businesses, and the steps that we need to take to make those changes. This year is a little different. Some of our clients might feel limited by the current restrictions, or feel frustrated by news stories about the likely economic effects of the pandemic. We’re here to help, so please do get in touch if you’d like to discuss your options. Our candidates are experienced professionals who can help you to weather the storm, and it may be useful to consider that part-time team members can bring to the table hugely valuable experience at a fraction of the cost you might usually expect to pay. The post-Covid world will be an exciting place. We’re looking forward to helping businesses through this period, and to working with fantastic new talent now and in the future.