TECH
Doing things differently
New digital offices
Companies around the globe have had to adopt remote working in a short period of time. Some have thrived and won’ t go back to the office model. The likes of Twitter, Quora, and Slack all indicating that they’ ll either be fully remote or remote-first for the foreseeable future. Others, however, have struggled with the transition and are hankering to get their teams back into the office. The ideal solution is probably somewhere in between these two extremes with employees able to work remotely when it is suitable and returning to the office as needed.
I t’ s important to first weigh out the real benefits of a fullystaffed workplace. This helps decide what functions need to return onsite and which ones can continue being remote. Bearing in mind that due to comfort zones and habits, staff may feel the function needs to be onsite when in fact it may be more cost-effective or more efficient to do remotely.
For instance, if your teams collaborated really well and were far more creative in the office, office space is worth the investment. Similarly, employees may feel more comfortable approaching management face-to-face than over email or video call. There is also the issue of mental health.
Remote work is not suitable to everyone, and some people may need human interaction to enable them to cope with being stuck at home. It may not be a daily interaction, it may just be a staff social event once a month, each circumstance or function should be assessed on a case-by-case basis to make the best decision for the future of the business.
To get back on track, organisations will be forced to spend a lot of time and effort on ensuring compliance and safety, instead of on their core business strengths.
As a means to help businesses get back to their feet in the new age, Zoho created a comprehensive application to help businesses transition into the new ways of working. Zoho BackToWork enables organizations to return to the workplace safely and securely.
Before going back to work
In the midst of understanding, and trying to get farmiliar with, the new ways of working, thanks to Covid19, it is important that businesses start doing this with systems in place that will ensure the safety of employees, customers, and other stakeholders in the office.
There are four important aspects to successfully going back to the office: 1. Ensuring employee safety 2. Publishing compliance guidelines 3. Effectively communicating 4. Managing assets and facilities
Zoho’ s BackToWork app focuses on workforce readiness:
• Admin control center module – Welcome your staff back to a safer office space. This dashboard empowers toplevel management to assess the preparedness of facilities better, and view individual employee health statuses.
• Wellness module – Provide industry-approved surveys. This dashboard lets you circulate and collect self-assessment and contact-tracing forms, and oversee organization-wide health information.
• Safe entry module – Determine which employees are ready to work from the office. With this module, perform employee self-assessments, segregate high-risk groups, and evaluate entry requests from employees and visitors.
• Employee self-service module – On this dashboard, you can manage asset requests, ranging from office supplies to sanitizer to office space maintenance.
• Communications module – Correspond with staff over the phone and the web, and share guidelines, best practices, frameworks, and announcements in a coordinated manner.
• Volunteer module – Give back to the community. This module allows organizations to recruit employees, and organize and execute volunteer drives.
14 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2020 SA Real Estate Investor Magazine