But, not all office culture is going to change. Companies like Newsclip Media Monitoring that has long been invested in future-proofing will be continuing — business as usual.

Last year, the innovative, tech-first company introduced a flexible working structure that doesn’t require employees to be at their desks — or even in the office. The ‘workation’ policy positioned employees in a space where they are able to work from wherever in the world they want to.

"Our brand is built on over 35 years of experience, but we have a young and dynamic workforce that continues to see us keeping up with the way that the media industry is going — not only in terms of company image and solutions offered but also how working hours and working standards are set and met," says Madelein Ludeke, human capital manager at Newsclip.

These kinds of break-through structures — like many work-from-home policies — require excellent channels of communication; not only between teams and managers, but also across departments. Newsclip has long been using cloud-based communication channels to ensure that teams can work together — wherever they are.

“Applications like WhatsApp, Slack and Trello are part of our company DNA,”  Ludeke says. “Excellent communication is key to managing the modern workforce.”

In order to survive the coronavirus’ effect on business, companies not only need excellent communication channels, but they also need to be powered by technology. Considering the impending 21-day lockdown, where non-essential workers are simply not allowed to go into work, technological power is the only solution.

Excellent communication is key to managing the modern workforce.
Having invested in developing smart AI-powered systems for over the past 10 years, Newsclip unwittingly bolstered itself against the COVID-19 crisis. It’s simply too late to start looking at how technology can help your business now — if the systems haven’t already been tried and tested, they will be of no help in the coming months.

The inclusion of AI-powered technology into the Newsclip systems has ensured that the company always remains ahead of the game. In line with its AI tech, the company has also embraced cloud-based operations, fully in line with Amazon S3 architecture. This means that all of its operations will be available to be deployed from online servers anywhere in the world.

The advent of COVID-19 is changing the way employees will be entering the workforce. Instead of going into the office, businesses need to prepare for a future that allows their employees to make their home into an office.

For more information, visit www.newsclip.co.za. You can also follow Newsclip on Facebook, LinkedIn or on Twitter.