The pandemic has globally and unexpectedly reshaped almost everything, how we think, act, behave, our routine, our family, affective and professional relationships. I have been curious to read what the sociological literature will tell us about all those transformations and how much the past months will impact our choices and decisions. At the companies, suddenly, the corporate curfew has come without any anesthetic, with all the pains at once - the lack of a proper technology park; the absence of working infrastructure and ergonomics at home; the difficulty of the simultaneous and forced cohabitation between personal and professional life with all the children, husbands, wives, fathers, mothers between one video conference and the other. Everything is new! Home office was still a curious and highlight topic in newspapers in early 2020 and many companies were promoting the benefit as an outstanding eye-catcher of the offer letter to hire any professional; one year later, the remote system was the default.

So many abrupt changes have compulsorily required investments in large scale on digital transformation. According to data provided by Citrix, a software company supplying servers, desktop virtualization, applications and networks as a service and cloud computing technologies, 68% of the Brazilian organizations would not allow remote work in 2019. That is, the true of the matter is that, however this or that business group was more prepared, all of them had to quickly adapt to that situation, particularly with respect to digitalization.

Three areas had to find a middle ground in order to create a digital working environment not only for the processes, but also for the personnel: IT, human resources and communications. The employee’s experience has never been so jeopardized. Whoever has surfed the synergy wave and managed to add up skills in order to create, manage and communicate different processes, adjust to new working hour systems and accept potential demands linked to all of those technologies and mental health, from the most humane standpoint, has taken the right action. The challenge is way beyond the single change of mindset and procedures, it is also about the management of risks involved in the entire work, which ranges from where to allocate more time and money to the impacts of the engagement by employees and the respective turnover.

The ultra-digital future only seen on The Simpsons and lately imposed on our lives have made me wonder: after all, has it come early and that’s why we were not prepared, or have we fell asleep on the wheel, quiet in our analog comfort zone?

Over the past few days, I have downloaded the book reading application, Skeelo, and come across at random with the essay ‘Quando acaba o século XX’ (When 20th Century is over) by the anthropologist and historian Lilia Moritz Schwarcz. In such essay, she reflects on the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on how we understand the structural inequalities of the Brazilian society and what she calls limits of technological utopia which marked the past century. Lilia says that “the biggest mark of 20th Century was the technology and the idea that it would emancipate and set us free”; however, she disagrees with such thought, “thanks to it (technology), we believed we were free from our geographical, bodily and time shackles. We were not! By making our humane and vulnerable side more evident, the COVID-19 pandemic marks the end of 20th Century”.

Bringing such reflection to the corporate field, the human factor, the technology and the communication demanding and establishing from it are exactly what motivates and consolidates the middle ground for those three areas - IT, human resources and communications - and that multidisciplinary connection is massively expanded due to the COVID-19 scenario and that new cycle and format open the, now formal, early 21st Century.

Considering that such digital transformation is also a cultural transformation and will encompass the entire company, three points are crucial for those three areas so such movement have more chances to be successful and less risky: clear understanding of the company’s business and strategy; trust and closeness of the high leadership; protagonism and interdisciplinary connection.

Communicating without content, digitalizing the working environment without focusing on the personnel, or changing the culture without communication will not do the job. This paper may be the first step to eliminate double processes, reduce the routine bureaucracy, get engagement, optimize time, add value and particularly positively impact the employee’s working hours through an experience that is preferably focused on the business. The technology acceleration imposed by the pandemic needs to be followed and constructed on a timely basis in order to improve the work and the processes, but also in order to contribute to become more targeted to the internal personnel’s health and welfare, from the talent attraction to the career transition.

The promotion of a digital environment with a flexible working format after the pandemic is already part of the value proposition offered by any company, i.e., its medium-long term commitment to the employee - and, surprisingly, it is far from being a rule. Digital transformation needs technology, but not only that. IT, HR and communications have an important role in that endeavor.

About the column:

The published texts address general themes of internal and external organizational communication; relationship with the press; social networks and digital marketing; reputation and image and subjects of more recent discussion such as culture and brand; purpose and employer branding.

The new space is edited by Lia Medeiros (photo), Director of Communication, Sustainability and People at TN Petróleo, and signed by journalist André Luiz Barros, who has been working with corporate communication for 12 years and currently accumulates the position of communication manager in a company in the oil and gas sector.