The last two years have been a roller coaster ride for businesses. Between seven-day lockdowns that lasted several weeks through to staff shortages caused by mandated isolation periods, it’s been challenging to keep track of changing rules and keeping businesses running. 2022 promises to be a little less chaotic, with lots of signs for optimism for businesses that are prepared and proactive.

We’re already seeing the effects of new policies around forced isolation for people who have contracted COVID and their households. While the proportion of people who are seriously ill or worse is lower than we say in the early stages of the pandemic, many more people are being forced to stay away from work. That makes workforce management challenging.

That’s why ensuring you have a workforce management platform in place that allows you to match jobs to people easily, and reallocate and reschedule when needed, is so important. When you know which team members are available, you can make reliable promises to your customers. And, should the need arise, you can quickly notify them should a technician become unavailable at short notice.

Workforce management and customer service are inextricably connected. Having a tool that connects them so you can keep everyone informed is critical. This enables you to manage resources efficiently. Customers are more likely to remember broken promises rather than a rescheduled appointment.

Let’s get digital

The success of any business is highly reliant on the easy and efficient exchange of information. With smartphones, tablets and computers now commonplace, it makes sense to employ digital platforms to support your business operations. However, transforming your business is not simply about taking what you do today and converting it to digital equivalents of your paper and pen systems.

Digital transformation is an opportunity to rethink how you do business. With workforces under pressure, digital tools can alleviate much of the administrative stress allowing teams to be more efficient and effective.

Businesses willing to be bold and push through the negativity and uncertainty and accelerate their digital transformation, will stay competitive and even thrive in this new business and economic environment. But it likely means new strategies and practices.

Opportunities beckoning

It would be easy to look at the last couple of years and feel like 2022 will be another hard year. The reality is that business disruption is not new. The challenge of recent years has been the pace of change. From those challenges have also come great opportunities.

If business has slowed down, you can use the time to rethink your processes and systems and redesign them to be more efficient. Chances are that you know of dozens of little tweaks you can make to improve efficiency and effectiveness. As the year is getting started and operations start to come back to normal, it’s a great time to make those improvements.

Technology upgrades that you’ve been considering can be accelerated while times are a little quieter.

2022 can be a springboard to the future. Instead of looking at the disappointments of the last two years, embrace the opportunities that 2022 offers. By using this time, you can prepare your business and be ready for new possibilities. Use the start of the new year to explore new partnerships, try new systems and processes, and look optimistically at the potential wins you can score. The reality is that those taking action will accentuate their growth.

We wish you every success for 2022 and beyond!

Chris Calamos , CEO
Retriever Communications