Smart Cities fast-tracked by the pandemic

A review of how the pandemic may have hastened the shift to smart cities has been undertaken by the University of NSW.

The sudden, enormous shift of most employees working from home caught most businesses on the hop at the start of the pandemic in March this year.  It is now looking like this change may become permanent.

Now, employers need to think about how they will incorporate this change into their future.  Flexibility will be vital.  Productivity gains will be made when employees no longer have to spend an hour at either end of the day travelling to and from work, however these gains need to be offset by the understanding that humans are, by nature, social animals and one of the major threats to working from home on a permanent basis is the possibility of isolation and issues with mental health.

The pandemic has shown us it can be done – now we need to work out how to do it better.

Commercial real estate, too, has been hard hit by the need of organisations for less office space and thought must be given to how to best deal with the excess space available.

Click here to read the full article in the Smart Cities newsletter