27 August 2020
Only a fifth of UK companies plan to re-open their offices to staff next month, according to a survey conducted by specialist HR site People Management, reported on 25 August. The same study indicates that one third of employers will ask their staff to come into the office only a few days per week and that 15% of companies still do not know when staff will be brought back into the office. The desertion of UK offices is a concern to the Confederation of British Industry, the UK business organisation, which has...
20 July 2020
On Thursday 16 July, the German multinational unveiled a plan that will see two to three days of remote working become the norm for at least 140,000 of its employees. Developed in the wake of the pandemic, during which remote working has been practiced and experimented on a large scale, the plan has been dubbed the “New Normal Working Model”. It is geared towards promoting employee well-being and the transition from a management centred on “presence” to a results-based approach.
14 July 2020
Since the beginning of July, the Hungarian subsidiary of telecommunications group Vodafone has been offering its telephone customer service staff the opportunity to continue working from home after the pandemic, should they opt to sign up. The introduction of remote working in this area of operations had taken longer than for other employees, who were already equipped to work remotely. However once the necessary steps were taken, the company saw no reason not to continue in this vein. Initially, 50% of such staff...
22 June 2020
This is what the public Brazilian petroleum corporation told Reuters following the lifting of lockdown in the country. The conditions are still to be defined, but the objective is to offer every administrative employee the option to work remotely. According to Petrobras, the experiment has proved successful in terms of productivity and has revealed potential avenues to reduce office costs as the company works to reduce its operational costs. Remote working will be voluntary, although the company anticipates that...
29 May 2020
Despite encouragement from the UK government for business to gradually return to normal, only 4% of UK employers have made their employees come back to work since coronavirus lockdown rules were relaxed in the country, specialised HR site People Management revealed on 28 May. According to a survey of more than 500 professionals, 55% of employers plan to keep remote working arrangements in place for an unspecified timeframe. Meanwhile 24% of respondents are waiting to find out more about the health-related guidance...
28 May 2020
On 27 May, Deutsche Post it would be testing more than 10,000 employees as a preventative measure, and on a voluntary basis, in order to better understand and assess the epidemiological situation as regards the staff working in its German sorting centers. Management is especially trying to identify asymptomatic carriers. The entire testing operation must be approved by the works councils for the sites concerned. Trade unions and employees are largely in favor of this measure.
7 May 2020
‘The lessons learned from the general implementation of teleworking are helping to accelerate the transformation of the company’s operating methods in favour of greater agility and efficiency for employees’, explained the French automaker in a press release issued on 06 May, announcing the launch of its ambitious ‘New Era for Agility’ project to overhaul the way people work by making telework ‘the benchmark for activities not directly related to production.’
29 April 2020
The global insurance group conducted its worldwide ‘Checking’ survey between 20 and 24 April in an attempt to gauge the state of mind and morale of its staff during this unprecedented period of history that has seen a large proportion of the workforce teleworking. ‘Checking’ is a short survey (4 questions) and replaces the first survey of the year which was due to take place in March but which was cancelled. The questions asked try to ‘take the pulse’ of its staff and assess whether employees feel well...
22 April 2020
Volkswagen Group’s Spanish car producing subsidiary Seat, has announced it will carry out mass screening of its assembly line staff. Testing will be carried out gradually at a rate of 3,000 per week in line with the rate of business resumption, which has been shut down since 16 March following the declaration of a state of emergency and the nationwide lockdown of the country. The company plans to recommence production from 27 April, starting with a third of its usual activity. The 3,000 employees initially...
21 April 2020
In the wake of the sudden rise in Covid-19 cases, and PM Shinzo Abe’s announcement on 07 April that Japan was entering a state of emergency, twice as many businesses as before have been putting telework arrangements in place. Notwithstanding the increase, hesitancy remains in undertaking what is still an uncommon form of working arrangement in Japan.
