In my last post (Covid-19 is just the preview, beware of the real show), I talked about some of the disturbing themes, like income inequality and climate change, that might get exacerbated by Covid-19. While the health, economic and social challenges are still unfolding, there are some unexpected positive shifts arising from this tragedy.

Lockdown forces reflection

Crisis is an inflection point that simply draws us to reflect. Lockdown driven solitude is forcing everyone to look within. I am sure you’ve had some reflective moments of your own in recent weeks. You start to wonder what matters most in life – well-being, family, kindness, equanimity, resilience? Besides, witnessing the sacrifices made by health workers and the plight of millions of migrant workers in India has touched each one of us deeply.

It’s making us feel more grateful for the life we have and be empathetic towards the well-being of others. When we are grateful and empathetic, we are at our kindest. Many of the hundreds of individuals I have surveyed at the end of my webinars would like to commit to becoming a kinder, calmer and wiser person. It’s visible. While the current needs of NGOs are enormous, the kind of outpouring of support that’s coming though is heartening.

Hopefully, we continue to harness these precious emotions and not let them get buried when better times come around. What we need most in modern society is not rapid economic development, but greater empathy, sharing, kindness and compassion.

Future of work starts shifting to home

Lockdowns have created a significant unintended positive consequence. It’s the possibility of a large number of employees working from home in the future. WFH is now a real thing and WFA (A for anywhere) will follow.

74% of the companies surveyed by Gartner intend shifting at least some part of their workforce to work remotely permanently. Deloitte believes 50 million jobs in south east Asia could move to WFH. TCS announced that 75% of their employees will work from home within the next five years. Twitter employees have the choice to work from home forever. The list goes on.

Why this matters? It’s a powerful shift with significant positives for employees, employers and society. WFH provides employees more time (no commute), greater flexibility, more autonomy and enhances their well-being. Research suggests that employee productivity goes up when working from home. (This may not be true in the current setting where employees are disoriented with the sudden change and are getting pulled into multiple chores at home.) A Stanford study found that the average worker was even willing to accept 8% less pay for the option to work from home. Of course, there’s the downside of reduced human interaction. To balance that, there’s likely to be some kind of a hybrid model between WFH and working in the office. (WFH works – I have been doing it for 14 years.)

Employers will benefit from cost savings from reduced real estate needs, higher productivity and a happier work force. WFH will allow employers to attract many other talented individuals like young mothers who they may ordinarily miss out on. Besides this, as executives travel less, locally and internationally, the biggest gain for society would be the reduced carbon footprint.

Remote learning can flatten the access curve

Online education is the future of mass education. Remote learning is significantly cheaper, requires much less infrastructure and makes it easy to offer content in vernacular languages. It overcomes the hurdle of poor availability of quality teachers available in low income communities (think government and rural schools in India). Besides, it allows learners to learn at their own pace – making learning more fun. The main limiting factors for less-resourced segments of society are the availability of suitable content and  continued internet access.

For the children from less privileged backgrounds, closure of schools has brought an abrupt stop to their learning. While that’s devastating in the short-term, this crisis is also springing innovation in this field. The e-Vidya program of the India government, among other initiatives, aims to start 12 TV channels, one for each grade. Organisations like Central Square Foundation, EnglishHelper, iDream and Google have already launched free apps to cater to these students. With additional capital flowing to this segment, Covid-19 could be the trigger that accelerates the much needed democratisation of education.

Further, as many prestigious colleges move to remote learning, students are questioning the high fees being charged by them. Quality online education platforms like Coursera, EdX, Udemy and Udacity that offer courses at a fraction of the cost will therefore rapidly grow in acceptability and recognition. This could indeed flatten the curve for access to higher education for millions of students in lower income economies.

Shift to sustainable energy gets a fillip

Three trends are particularly encouraging in the fight against climate change. First, with the significant recent decline of oil prices, aggravated by the current crisis, the business of drilling oil is no longer as lucrative. A key measure of their profitability, the return on capital, which has been falling lately, is now becoming particularly less attractive. So, traditional oil companies are bound to diversify into alternate energy.

Second, the cost of renewables is falling steadily, making it easier for individuals and organisations to make the shift. Solar and wind are the cheapest sources of power in many parts of the world. As nations recover from the crisis, they will look to cheaper energy sources to rebuild. This shift is borne out by the huge increase in investments in ESG (environment, social and governance) funds in recent months.

Finally, several institutions are now shunning investments in fossil fuels businesses. From Morgan Stanley, Citibank and Goldman Sachs ruling out any financing for arctic oil drilling to leading universities like Harvard, Georgetown, Stanford, and Middlebury College committing to divest from fossil fuel investments.

Universal basic income enters mainstream conversation

Across Asia, about 60 percent of people do not have any form of social protection. Twenty percent of Indians live on less than $2 a day. Gig economy workers have negligible benefits. Currently, there’s no recognition of the economic contribution of homemakers, primarily women. With rapid automation, job security in many industries is declining, creating tremendous insecurity. Covid-19 simply makes the situation worse.

Universal Basic Income (UBI) can respond to many of these challenges – not just during the current crisis, but also for the longer term. It treats humans equally. The poor can better meet their basic needs. Homemakers feel more financially secure. Research shows that reduced financial insecurity for workers arrests their IQ decline and improves decision-making ability and mental health. The current crisis has forced governments to provide direct payments to individuals – in some cases for multiple times. Spain has started offering an ongoing basic income to its poorer citizens, Canada has committed to four months, Scandinavian countries are offering 75 to 90 percent of worker’s salaries during this time.

While we require more research to determine its long-term effects, irrespective of the conclusion, UBI needs a serious consideration. Covid-19 is bringing the conversation about UBI and its relevance into the mainstream conversation.