Is this the end of the office?
In the past week, New Zealand Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, has advised businesses to consider a four-day work week. While other companies, like Google and Facebook, are planning on introducing permanent work-from-home arrangements.
As restrictions begin to ease across the globe, businesses are starting to consider what a return to the office will look like. An office where you can’t hit an elevator button, touch a metal door or shake hands during a business meeting. But beyond the health and safety concerns, the demands on businesses are shifting, requiring new skills and flexible employment options.
But what skills do you need? Should you be looking for crisis management specialists, digital marketing professionals or strategic thinkers? To help with this, we recently announced a new service to assist employers diagnose, scope and resource any project, with the ability to draw on our full range of talent and fast-track hiring. You can find out more here.
Below, we have also provided a curated list of marketing and communications professionals to help navigate this transition period. Click here to see the full list of services our experts can offer.
PATRICK (SYDNEY, NSW)
“I am a seasoned communications professional with experience gained over the last 10 years across two major Australian companies. I have worked with established brands to create media and broadcast outcomes as well as emerging brands to create strong PR and marketing campaigns to create growth in the target market. I have managed stakeholders from different organisations including corporate and government partners and managed media events to achieve successful results. I have worked in crisis communications across several major national and international news stories; which required long term management, and clear communication to navigate the challenges that were presented both internally and externally. I have worked extensively with media from overseas with a strong focus on the Pacific and Japan and in 2019 was contracted to World Rugby to work throughout the Rugby World Cup.”
DIMITRA (MELBOURNE, VIC)
“I am a corporate communications professional with more than a decade of experience in marketing, media and communications. I have substantial experience working across government and with clients from the health, professional services and fast moving consumer goods industries. I have honed my skills whilst managing the reputation of a prominent government agency and I have proven ability to deliver strategic corporate advice to C-Suite executives on strategic and corporate communications, issues and crisis management. As a genuine people person, I have been recognised for my ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders, create and implement communication strategies and develop effective crisis management plans. My leadership in the State response regarding Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances received Federal recognition as it was thoughtfully executed and provided transparent and concise information to the media. It was adopted as the best practice model moving forward.”
PHILIP (ADELAIDE, SA)
“As a proven strategic policy and big ideas developer, I am adept at negotiating, facilitating and networking at top levels of government and business. Supported by an exceptional team, I am able to meet project scope against demanding requirements to quickly deliver outcomes. As a Principal of a boutique advisory firm I am supported by an innovative team providing full scope communications and business services. Before establishing Duncan Morgan Advisory I worked across the Commonwealth and South Australian bureaucracies within a range of portfolios including higher education, industry and innovation, defence, disability and climate change. As a strategic communications, advocacy, policy leadership, corporate affairs and government relations executive I have recently delivered significant projects for clients of all sizes and industry sectors across Australia, Singapore and South-East Asia. Some of these include the Commonwealth, South Australian and Victorian Governments, regulatory and industry associations, and private organizations such as Ecological Engineering, Micro-Utility Partners, Drift Global and iSuRRF.”
CHRIS (SYDNEY, NSW)
“I’m proud of my strong relationships and my deep knowledge of the media landscape across Australia, as well as my network of contacts within traditional and new media, Federal Government and State counterparts. I’ve had significant experience across the full spectrum of corporate affairs and communications management, at both the strategic and operational level; including proactive media promotion and PR activities, responsive media relations, strategic and crisis communications and digital media. The biggest challenge of my career to-date was managing communications throughout the ‘Israel Folau social media’ debate that created headlines across the world.”
DEB (SYDNEY, NSW)
“Deb is a senior marketing professional with both brand and agency international experience, having worked in Australia, the UK and Europe. She has a strategic head utilising data and campaign performance analysis to develop conversion driven execution. Her digital and social media marketing experience has seen her manage brand launches, ecommerce trading across multiple markets, long and short form content production plus CRM and EDM strategy and execution. Deb has worked across many industry sectors including Beauty, Travel, Fashion, Finance and Technology. Key marketing experience across: Digital & Social Media, eCommerce, Content, CRM & EDM and Communications.”
RICHARD (MELBOURNE, VIC)
“I am a corporate and change communications specialist. I help organisations, leaders and teams to communicate clearly and effectively to drive change, promote products and services and manage reputations. My recent experience is in change communication and stakeholder management for major digital transformation, organisational change and technology and legislative adoption. I enjoy working with leaders and teams to find their voice on engagement and collaboration platforms like Yammer and Teams to improve employee engagement, realise productivity benefits, help achieve business outcomes and drive cultural aspirations. In my spare time I produce and present The Modernist on PBS 106.7FM Melbourne.”
ALISON (SUNSHINE COAST, QLD)
“Digital marketing organically evolved into my practice as a communications professional. Before Facebook took off, I was a web writer on two large website-rebuild projects for a regional council and university. For more than 13 years now, I have been a website copywriter and integrated online marketing and social media with strategic communications to help small businesses and NFPs grow online, raise their profile and build meaningful relationships with their audiences. I have also managed the social media for multiple festivals (Noosa International Film Festival, Conscious Life Festival among others) resulting in increased attendance year on year.”
AMBER (SYDNEY, NSW)
“I have over 20 years of experience providing strategic communication advice and support with particular expertise in internal and change communications. I have developed and implemented multi-faceted internal communication strategies in many large, complex organisations including Westpac where I headed up internal communications for the core business divisions, and Transport for NSW where I was a divisional internal communication lead. I have led internal communications for major change programs in organisations including Westpac, working on a wide range of projects at different times including their Employee Value Proposition, and a number of internally-focused organisational change programs. At the Commonwealth Bank I led the development and implementation of an Employee Value Proposition, and in The NSW Department of Family and Community Services I was the internal communication lead for a major organisational reform program with multiple streams of work.”
ALLECIA (SYDNEY, NSW)
“I’m an experienced strategic communications specialist with a strong background in internal and change communications, communications advice and media relations. My projects are usually in transport, government, IT and health areas. I’ve worked with employees in either operational, remote or corporate roles. At Sydney Light Rail I focused on internal communications and community engagement for the Inner West. I developed strategy and implemented change communications about a new IT system for hiring managers at the NSW Department of Education. My projects have also involved reputation management. A major strength is writing and editing content for a range of digital and print mediums.”

Commtract is Australia & New Zealand's first marketplace and community for professional communicators.