Since in the service sector 50% of employees in both the public and private sectors work under the distance work (teleworking) regime, companies are invited to redesign their workplaces for the post-Covid-19 era.
Teleworking is a mainstream trend that will continue to exist after the end of the Covid-19 pandemic in companies operating in the service sector. Many employees may be excited about this trend, but the redesign of the workplace will determine factors such as:
by Thanos S. Chonthrogiannis
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1. The adaptability of businesses to the new working-frame data.
2. The nature of the work, i.e. daily dealing with physical files-archives, support and security of IT systems, receipt of documents, customer support, report processing, etc.
3. Whether physical presence on the premises of the undertaking is necessary to achieve the maximum degree of cooperation between the individual parts of the undertaking.
4. The security of the company’s IT networks that will allow remote work.
5. Whether the employee’s work duties require the employee’s personal contact with the company’s customers.
6. Employee preferences and their adaptation to the new reality.
7. Reducing the operating costs of businesses.
What needs to be done by businesses
A. Once they have measured all these parameters, a reassessment should be made at current prices of the operating and management costs of the facilities, as well as remodeling and new spatial planning of offices and workplaces in general.
B. At the same time, businesses should review IT security protocols in the strictest context and develop all those necessary infrastructures that will make any difficulty of compatibility of each job with the other workers who will continue to work in the current workplaces negligible.
C. Re-evaluation, with stricter criteria of the effectiveness of each job both those that are in-house and those that are under the teleworking regime. The same should be done with productivity both at individual level and at department level as well as at the company.
Cost savings due to reduced operating costs from teleworking have a ceiling while at the same time the optimal efficiency of its employees. Only then the enterprise will have achieved a maximum degree of performance of its business.
