Remote working may become common in organisations: Annie Weckesser, Chief Marketing and People Officer, Uniphore

By Annie Weckesser, Chief Marketing and People Officer, Uniphore

Uniphore is a global organisation and we are getting used to the new mode of working. In our company,  many of our leaders have lived through previous crisis. We have learnt that in situations like these, it is important to be calm, and not panic. One must communicate and connect more often with teams — I cannot stress this point enough. Leaders must share their plans and how decisions are being made. It is critical to paint the picture or vision of 12-18 months from now.

No crisis goes to waste – in fact new businesses and methods of doing business are created because they are times when we need to innovate, change, think different, build capabilities and convert the challenges and crisis into an opportunity.

Once things improve and return to “normal,” remote working may become common in the organizations who have made better systems, practices and tools to be equally effective and productive while working remotely.

Our focus for example is bringing AI and automation to the contact center and approximately 30% of the contact agents that are currently working remotely, could continue to do so after this ends.

We have had some small challenges – whether it’s in U.S., India, Singapore or Japan. There are sometimes challenges on data bandwidth at home which results in productivity/time lag on product support. Due to low bandwidth, at times, audio video connection can be patchy.  In India, not every employee has full power back up at homes and longer duration power cuts does pose challenges. We have attempted to make the best of these challenges with sharing tips with our employees on how to effectively work from home and encouraged collaboration tools.

For ensuring secure connectivity, our employees use VPN to business software. We are providing reimbursements for data connectivity during this period. Employees have been provided video conference and collaboration tools for business. And for new joiners, we have scheduled virtual on-boardings and inductions.