COMPANIES will see a new way of doing business as the Philippines contains the spread of the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) even after the lockdown.
Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of both the Employers Confederation of the Philippines and the Philippine Exporters Confederation said businesses are willing to adopt shorter work-week, remote work and work-from-home schemes as a temporary measure.
Ortiz-Luis said if these schemes are prescribed by government, businesses will comply but with exclusions on tasks and only on specific industries.
E-commerce
Ramon Lopez, secretary of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) sees more small businesses adopting
delivery platforms, electronic commerce and digital payments in pushing products especially groceries, food and other basic needs.
“Even after COVID-19, this would be the trend. This hastened the adoption of e-commerce which we have been promoting to small and medium enterprises,” said Lopez.
Shift to digital
Jobstreet. com said most companies forced to shift to remote work and adopt digital ways following the have seen remote work could be done on certain types of tasks.
JobStreet said this reinforces findings of its Laws of Attraction Data Lab done prior to the pandemic which showed 47.8 percent of Filipino employees want the option to work from home.
Jobstreet said certain industries like business process outsourcing, manufacturing, retail, healthcare and food and beverage which could not shift to remote work should consider providing better benefits for their workers.
“Aside from mandatory government benefits, medical and insurance coverage for both the employee and their families is a must–especially for those who cannot afford to work from home,” Jobstreet said.
Jobstreet also said companies will now start updating their leave policies following the outbreak when suspected or probable cases may need to self-quarantine. This means most paid leaves will be used up even before symptoms show.
Staying productive
Companies are offering ways to enable employees and students stay productive while under the expanded community quarantine.
Robert Walters, a global recruitment specialist group headquartered in England and with regional offices in Southeast Asia, shares tips on how businesses and organizations can ensure efficiency and productivity even while working from home.
First is to have a clear contingency plan for remote work or customize an approach that works best for their teams. This plan should include how reporting will be done, how meetings with clients may be conducted and what other changes will be implemented during the temporary work arrangement.
Managers and business heads must roll out output-based systems that can be monitored online.
Software tools such as Microsoft Office, a collaborative cloud-based platform tool can help companies collaborate securely across many devices within the organization.
The platform h brings together the best-in-class Microsoft Office applications such as Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, to name a few.
Eastern Communications shares advantages of the cloud-based feature of Office 365 in letting employees work remotely wherever and whenever work takes them.
Eastern Communications said Office 365 also provides security to all the files and data uploaded on the cloud, so businesses can focus on the important things.
Productivity tools such as Office 365 enables businesses to become more adaptable and efficient with the ever-progressing digital landscape.
