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60 Last year will be a year none of us will ever forget. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, quick shifts in work environments, and the abrupt nature in which our normal, everyday activities came to a screeching halt, there were many lessons we learned across the board, both personally and professionally. According to a global survey conducted by Gartner, 88% of organizations worldwide made it mandatory or encouraged their employees to work from home once COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Now, according to Buffer's 2021 State of Remote Work Report, 99% of remote workers would like to continue doing so to some extent. With percentages that high, we as operational and human resource professionals owe it to our employees to take what we've learned over the past year and a half and incorporate the best of those lessons moving forward, whether we're planning hybrid work environments or work location flexibility. Over the past year and a half, we've learned how to ramp up our technology needs, define what flexibility really means, and even take a different approach to employee engagement and benefits. Not only have we learned more than we could have imagined, but now it's up to us to determine what's here to stay and implement what's important moving forward. TECHNOLOGY: INVESTMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION While technology has always been an integral part of the work experience— essentially, the lifeblood of all organizations—it served an even greater purpose throughout 2020 and 2021 as we relied on it more heavily than in years past. When organizations moved to a remote or work-from-home model last year, all eyes were on technological capabilities, pretty much overnight. Some of the questions that came to mind were, "How are we going to maintain connectivity and our culture while not being able to interact face-to-face," "What does this mean for cybersecurity," and "What about all of our in-office events and employee recognition programs, how do we replicate that?" Businesses quickly became highly intentional about leveraging other forms of communication to stay connected with their teams and colleagues. We quickly saw a rise in video technology, and those laptop cameras that were once covered by a company-branded sliding door were now open and ready for use. Video chats allowed teams to see each other, while not physically in the same room, and feel some sense of togetherness. Granted, usual side conversations that typically take place during meetings had to come to an end so that all team members could clearly hear the person speaking or leading the meeting, but that also encouraged peers to be intentional about connecting with one another outside of the weekly meetings to catch-up, share ideas, Feature By: Susan Sullivan THE WAY BACK Learn how pandemic lessons can pave the way for a return to the office.

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