Meet our expert: Adriana Escobar, Partner, Colombia

What will be the most important market trend affecting your clients’ sectors over the next six months?

The most important trend that will affect the sectors that provide services and produce goods will be the introduction and implementation of technologies that optimise the deployment of the workforce and that are used both in person and virtually, offering the highest standards of quality and with the speed that today’s times demand.

Likewise, with the constant use of the most advanced technological tools, our clients will need to implement the necessary and adequate mechanisms to guarantee the protection of business information. In the last year, the increase in information leaks and loss of valuable and sensitive data inside and outside of companies has been worrying. This is due to the massive use of new technologies that are used in the virtual workplace, a strong trend in the development of the work of the future.

How has the pandemic affected your clients/the sectors your clients are active in and what steps are they taking to secure success in the post-pandemic business environment?

Sectors such as food, manufacturing and non-basic services were strongly affected, having to significantly reduce their workforce as a direct effect of the pandemic. However, additional resulting effects included social unrest, protests and unemployment, which also affected business reactivation in Colombia.

In addition to the above, there are several new work trends derived from the collaborative economy. Traditional processes in production and supply chains are being replaced by standardised and automated systems, where several producers and service providers work together virtually in a very efficient circular system. The provision and delivery of the product or services are optimised and at a lower cost.

This collaborative way of working that has been gaining strength for several years, as a result of the acceleration of virtual markets and the rapid development of new technologies, is becoming a challenge. It requires clients in these sectors to transform quickly and efficiently, to try to be much more competitive in price and results, while at the same time involving their workers in this new approach to work.

What was the most interesting cross-border, cross-discipline project that you were involved in?

A project in regards to new forms of remote work on which we have been working over the last year. It is the answer to all the concerns and challenges that our clients have in regard to home/office work, hybrid work and the avalanche of new laws in Latin America and the world that have been developed to meet current needs and to adequately regulate new trends.

I’d like to highlight the joint work in the Latin American region as well as the participation of our partners from Chile, Peru, Spain and, in my case, Colombia, in a great discussion on “Remote work and the new labour challenges in Latin America”. We learned more about the situation of our clients and colleagues at the regional level, and many questions were answered around new work trends and modalities as a result of the pandemic. The conclusion was that the way work activities are performed has changed forever. The new challenges for workers and employers are just starting.