With thousands of employees shifting to working from home overnight and other on-site workers dealing with new health and safety concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, today’s employers face a range of pressing questions about the future world of work.

Even in just two months, our team at The Grossman Group has learned a lot by listening to leaders and employers, surveying employees and conducting focus groups to really understand how various audiences are thinking about the workplace going forward. And of course, we know from years of experience helping companies manage a crisis what works best to set organizations up for long-term success. Naturally, a lot of the best practices come down to more strategic communication, planning and better employee listening. Yet there are many other smart practices to apply as well.

“We were able to do in days what would have taken years.” I’ve heard this often lately.

I’m in awe of how employers and employees have stepped to the plate to do amazing things… shifting business plans in days, reinventing ways of working, and turning “we could never” into “we can and did."  In many ways, though, the hard work is just beginning. We’re entering a new stage of navigating through change when fatigue sets in and a company’s culture is tested.

One of the newest employer trends to come out of the COVID-19 pandemic is the increased use of surveillance software to track employees’ daily activity while they work at home. The programs often include webcams that take regular images of employees during work hours. The software may also nudge employees who step away from their laptops, warning them to get back to work within a minute or be marked as off-task.

This trend reminds me of a game we used to play as kids – “king of the hill.” I can still remember the kid who was insistent on being the king of the hill in our sixth-grade class. That boy relished his sense of control, seeking power over the rest of us. I probably remember him so well because, as a lanky and uncoordinated boy myself, I had a permanent spot at the bottom of the hill. I wasted some time trying to work myself up until I realized I needed to be far away from that hill and pave my own path.

Employee preferences for working from home and demands for increased flexibility result in growing pressure for employers to rethink the future world of work

2020 will be remembered for many things, including a once unimaginable shift of employees from being mostly on-site to working from home. And across a variety of industries – technology, banking and finance, sales, consulting, and beyond – employers are dramatically changing their views about work-from-home arrangements.

One of the major impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic will be on the future of workplaces around the world. A new study from our team at The Grossman Group bears this out – with 48 percent of employees working from home now saying they’d like to keep that arrangement.

If even only a portion of those employees get their wish, that would still represent a major shift in the remote workforce. Prior to COVID-19, only 7 percent of U.S. private sector workers had access to a “flexible workplace” benefit, or telework, according to a prominent study of the U.S. Workforce – the 2019 National Compensation Survey (NCS) from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. Many of those teleworkers were managers or other white-collar professionals.

In the midst all the upheaval resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s natural for leaders to feel powerless and anxious. Many are wondering how their business will survive, what the new normal will look like, and just what the pandemic will mean for their personal and professional lives.

But there are in fact concrete things leaders can do to navigate the uncertainty, actions they can all take to lead and communicate with heart – and guts. That’s what this eBook provides: clear direction for how to be the very best leader and communicator you can be during this critical moment.

I’ve always been an information junkie – hearing other people’s perspectives feeds my soul and helps me feel more in control. This pandemic has made me even more hungry to hear and learn from others.

From my conversations with many leaders these past weeks, I’m not alone in feeling this way. We want to know how this story is going to end (or even the new few chapters) and those credible sources get our attention.

While we don’t have the crystal ball, here are five things to think about (if you’re not already) to help lead employees through the uncertainty that comes with COVID-19 and drive performance:

As many of us enter week six or seven of working remotely, it's amazing to think about all that’s changed – and how much we’re adapting. One of the biggest changes for us and even our clients is the significant increase in video conferencing. While it’s becoming more commonplace, it doesn’t take away from the fact that frequent video meetings are still new to many of us. And with any new routine or skill, it can be draining until it truly becomes second nature.

It’s incredibly hard to be leading a company today. Amid all the economic upheaval from the COVID-19 pandemic, even the strongest among us are feeling powerless and anxious about the future. We are full of big questions. Will the business survive? If we weather this storm, what will the new normal be? How do I keep my employees safe today, much less engaged and focused? How about my own family and my own health?

While that sense of uncertainty is normal, it doesn’t have to rule the day. There are concrete actions all leaders can take to make this time a defining moment for their business, one that helps bring employees together in the best possible ways. Many companies have already begun to accomplish this. That’s inspiring to see. I’m also convinced that armed with some key strategies, all leaders can have a similar impact.

As we’re all adjusting to new ways of working, we’re finding out quickly what works well and what may no longer be effective as we lead our teams (and from a distance, for many of us) through these uncertain times. With that in mind, we thought it may be helpful to pulse our clients and other leaders in our network to learn what is working best for them.

We received more than a hundred best practices – and they’re still coming. We’ve put the most common (and some not-so-common) tips into an easy-to-read guide, which you can download here.