Employee Productivity in the Co-Vid Era - How to Tackle It

It is no secret that the Covid -19 outbreak has drastically changed the economy and businesses across the world. For this reason, companies around the world are scrambling to develop an effective system of remote working, whereby employees can work from home to keep them safe from the virus and keep to government regulations. While many companies are adapting to remote working (or WFH, as we’d like to call it in Dubai), this idea still sounds bizarre to certain organizations who haven’t adjusted to new ways and means of working. These ‘old-school’ leaders and entrepreneurs come from the line of thought that work can only be done from the office. Their reasons, of course, seem quite rational; they believe remote working will lead to more distractions, and limited interaction between staff members will pave the way to reduced productivity. To equip leaders and companies with the tools to adapt to the restrictions created by the pandemic, we have come up with some methodologies that can be implemented to keep your employees productive when they are working from home.

Video Conferencing: The Lifeblood of Quarantined Connectivity

Nowadays, it’s easy to connect with people around the world, so a supervisor or manager can connect to his employees by using a plethora of different online video conference platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom Meetings, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, Skype for business, Eztalks meetings and Cisco Webex, most of which are free of charge.

Through these platforms, we can share our screens and run any kind of trainings or presentations with upwards of 50 people at a given time. Many companies around the world are making good use of this technology in the current situation to stabilize business operations with minimum expense to the business.

Futureproof Access and Remote Working Capabilities

Now that it is mandatory for most of the population to work from their homes, employers should ease the access of employees’ workstations with applications such as Remote Desktop. Office data can be transferred to cloud servers to store data, giving access to employees from anywhere. Given that some may not have access to high-speed internet connections at home, it is important for organizations to ensure that proper connectivity to the internet can be given to employees. Providing them with SIM cards and landline extensions through the means of support software’s like “GS Wave” is helpful in connecting and available to their clients and customers on landline.

Building an Offline Network of Emotional Support

Keep your employees encouraged by propagating the need for self-care, especially for people who are trying to adapt to this new system of remote working and are stressed by the new work environment and the daily updates about COVID-19.

Keeping it Flexible

Flexible hours will allow an employee to work at a convenient time, particularly with female employees who are also mothers or expecting mothers. Implementing flexible working hours will allow an employee the manage their time and household responsibilities, thereby improving his or her morale. If implemented correctly, employees will go an extra mile to ready themselves for work as they are one step closer to finding their work-life balance.

Upskilling and Providing Value

We know that due to current market situation there is limited work for many of the employees and so employers can use this time to train their employees which can increase efficiency and knowledge. Employers should take the opportunity to arrange for different types of trainings to bolster the knowledge and knowhow of their employees. E-learning platforms such as Lynda, Udemy, Couresa and Khan Academy can benefit those who want to upskill during the pandemic. The L&D team can also opt for an option of Virtual trainings or online trainings.

Plan for the Future – Interview Now

As a professional recruitment consultant, I would suggest that this is the best time to hire, because more qualified candidates are open for to challenges and are not time-bound to discuss potential opportunities. Companies who were struggling earlier to find good and available talent will be able to identify more interested candidates and interview them online at a convenient time, and at a steady pace. Online interviews can be conducted by online video conference platforms like Microsoft Teams, Zoom Meetings, GoToMeeting, Google Hangouts, Skype for business, Eztalks meetings and Cisco Webex, most of which are free of charge.

We are willing and happy to provide advice to organizations who are wasting operational time by helping to equip them with the necessary knowledge to set up their work-from home system.

Let us join hands and help each other grow during the era of this unforeseen pandemic.

_{Written by Arti Bhargava}

_{Edited by Kirk Lobo}