Phase 3 matters: Addressing business and employee concerns through technology

Phase 3 is here, but are businesses really ready for it?

When Covid-19 struck, it took us all by surprise. Even as businesses and Governments took unprecedented steps and implemented a Circuit Breaker (CB), meaning employees had to get used to what is now being called the “ New Normal ”.

As we began to Work- From- Home (WFH), we began to embrace tools like Zoom and Microsoft’s Teams as webcams and stable Internet access became increasingly important and overseas travel became a fond memory.

Eric Goh, Vice President & Managing Director, Singapore, Dell Technologies said that Dell expects that 60 per cent of their workforce will stay remote or have a hybrid schedule where they work from home most of the time. So collaboration tools will be critical in ensuring a smooth transition to the hybrid work culture.

As Goh puts it, “Work today is no longer anchored to one place and time. Instead, it is focused on outcomes.”

But we seem to have made it through what seems to the worst of Covid-19 and now the Singapore Government has said that we are in Phase 3 which has allowed more people to return back to the office.

But after almost a year at home, are we really ready to go back? Are our offices ready for us to go back? What if we hit a second wave of infections?

Were we ready for WFH challenges?

Dell Technologies recently carried out a survey in Asia with some 1,000 working professionals from Singapore and found out that 80 per cent of them were ready for long-term remote work but were worried about productivity challenges.

We asked human resource firm, Indeed, about work trends during the last year and they said that many companies had seen little to no impact on productivity.

And given the circumstances people are working in - the stress of the virus, many caring for their elderly, young children and facilitating home-schooling - the fact we haven’t seen a drop in productivity is remarkable and showed how viable remote working really is.

According to Ronnie Lee, General Manager at Lenovo Singapore said that the company and staff had been using Microsoft Teams since before the start of Covid-19, and Skype before that.

They also had a flexible work arrangement policy that allowed employees to work from home or decide when they would like to start or end work.

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This not only helped to support the work-life balance of employees but also enabled everyone to easily pivot to a complete work from home scenario brought about by the circuit breaker.

Communications solutions provider Poly’s Managing Director for Asean & Korea, Samir Sayed, said that Poly had been working from a hybrid work model from Pre-Covid times and that he’s been encouraged to see businesses and employees investing in collaboration tools.

“Technology has a big role to play in creating the next normal, and if anything, Covid-19 has taught us to remain flexible and be quick to respond, redesign, reinvent, and adapt to the challenges head-on by embracing audio and video collaboration technology that is easy-to-install and manage , to reduce downtime and lost productivity,” Sayed said.

Fernando Serto, Akamai Head of Security Technology and Strategy, APJ said that working from home can be challenging and creates more opportunities for inadvertent data and privacy challenges. So, employees are encouraged to follow good practices when dealing with data and across devices.

Serto added that with the pandemic, businesses had to adopt strategies to enable their workforce to work remotely, and those that traditionally did not have a BYOD or BCP strategy in place found themselves unprepared and without a security strategy to protect their remote teams.

Akamai cautioned that the convenience that digitalisation brings and the increase in app usage indicate more traffic and a greater attack surface that needs to be managed effectively.

Addressing employee concerns

Ultimately it boils down to Government regulations and company policy as to whether employees return to the office, continue to work from home or a hybrid of both.

Beyond worrying about the health and safety of returning employees, businesses also need to understand the challenges employees continue to face and to provide the necessary resources for successful long-term remote work.

Sayed said that he’d been impressed by businesses’ and employees’ ability to react and respond quickly to changes. But he was aware that employees working from home appreciated the need to carve out a more conducive space for their home office – of which these include comfortable furniture , good lighting, ergonomic input devices , enterprise-grade technology and connectivity .

Dell’s employee survey found that as workers began their WFH they faced not only technical challenges, but some felt lost, citing a lack of guidance or company engagement.

In Singapore, the lack of or insufficient learning and development sessions, which includes training for virtual tools, was especially felt by surveyed employees aged 55 and above (Baby Boomers), with 43 per cent viewing it as their top HR challenge.

The study revealed that the blurring boundary between work and personal lives was the most significant concern for employees, with 35per cent citing it as a top worry should remote work arrangements continue long-term.

Going back in needs preparation

Even as we enter Phase 3, what do businesses and employees need to do or have in place to ensure a smooth transition for returning staff?

Human resource firm Indeed says that the situation is evolving, but their most current data says that hiring in Singapore is slowly returning to form.

But since employees are just as likely to be productive working at home, Indeed has adopted a hybrid approach for their workforce and staff have the opportunity to go completely remote, switch between working from home and the office, or be full-time in the office.

Dell’s Goh said that prior to any return, businesses must have a system for employees to stay up-to-date on work policies, information about working from home, considerations for events and meetings and tips for keeping healthy.

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“We believe that technology readiness, leadership and a resilient culture are key to helping our teams do their best work,” Goh said.

He added that Dell would be taking a conservative approach when allowing staff to return.

“Using data and science, we consider a country’s infection and recovery trends, the availability of free movement, public transportation and the stability of the healthcare system supported by the respective country/ state,” he explained, “Once the decision has been made for a return, extensive preventive measures are also in place to ensure site preparedness for the safety of returning team members including "masked when mobile," deep cleaning, and resource and capacity planning for social distancing.”

According to Lee, at Lenovo’s office, they have clearly demarcated the office in line with safe distancing measures. Along with a clean desk policy, there is also more frequent cleaning of shared surface areas. But Lee cautioned that while businesses have a responsibility to employees to ensure they have a safe environment to return to work to, employees too have to do their part to comply with safety measures.

Beyond safety measures, Sayed also added that businesses needed to create workspaces that are collaborative and technology-enabled across multiple locations as well as investing more in enterprise-grade tools like professional headsets and high-definition video conferencing as part of their long-term investments in technology.

Serto said that as the Asia Pacific region braces itself for a potential permanent remote reality, they also need to deal with more devices and interfaces are used to deal with data and information. “As a priority, businesses need to focus on what their design principle is for their cybersecurity architecture in order to stay secure from cyber threats like ransomware and malware. Once that is identified, people, process and technology will follow,” Serto added.

Already burnt out

There have been reports of employees on WFH suffering burnout as the lines between work and rest often becoming blurred as staff are in constant reach of work communications like emails and phone calls.

Plus, those with children have had the double whammy of work and family at the same time. A familiar complaint of, “Excuse me, my kids are calling,” became a common comment during video conferences.

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Sayed said that Poly had seen an increasing number of workers reporting “video fatigue”. “Video conferencing solutions will need to add functionalities that help people manage their mental health and improve the video experience for users,” Sayed said, “This can include timers and alarms that alert the user to prolonged video meetings, reminders to schedule breaks, as well as insights for managers to better manage and prevent burnout within their teams .”

Lee said that it is important for businesses to have continued employee engagement through regular virtual sessions during this WFH period. “Having in place Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs) is also critical to provide confidential counselling to help employees to deal with any personal and relational challenges that may have an impact, physically, mentally and psychologically,” he explained, “Lenovo for example, implemented DEAR Fridays, where employees are encouraged to end work at 3 pm on Fridays, so they can have adequate rest.”

Serto said that the most important thing a business could do was to act with empathy. The pandemic is clearly damaging to employee wellbeing, but employers can mitigate its impact by addressing employee needs and preparing for the post-pandemic era.

Dealing with another shutdown

But should there a second wave of covid-19 infections, much like that happening in Europe and some parts of North Asia, businesses and staff here are ready to a WFH return. All said that the experience gained from last year has helped shape plans and readiness should things go back to another Circuit Breaker situation.

Goh said that as a technology company themselves, Dell has deployed tools to collaborate online, attend virtual meetings, and serve customers while working remotely. “The collaboration and resilience of our team members are enabled by the robust technologies we have today.”

All of the businesses we spoke to said that they would be taking the lead from Government advisories and their headquarters.

But at the very least, businesses and staff can draw strength from the fact that we went almost the entire 2020 in an unprecedented situation and we have seemingly made it through to the other side. What we've done once, we can carry on again, but this time with the knowledge of what we need to make things easier and the support of management to get it done.

This article was first published in Hardware Zone.