Friday 11 September 2020

When are Belarusian IT companies planning to return to their offices?

Many countries are already easing restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic. In Moscow, on June 9, the self-isolation regime and the digital pass system were canceled, and on June 16, summer verandas of cafes, museums and libraries were opened. Neighboring Lithuania has canceled quarantine since June 17, and with it - the mask regime at points of sale, places of mass events and in public transport. 

In our country, quarantine has not been officially announced, but since March, many businesses have gradually left for "remote work", especially IT companies. And when are Belarusian IT specialists planning to return to their offices and what factors will affect this?

Polina Gankovich, director of 1C-Bitrix and Bitrix24 online service in Belarus: computer qustions

- We have switched to work from home since March 16, and we have been working remotely for three months already. We are closely following the epidemiological situation in Belarus and in the world and do not set specific dates. We define only "control points". The next one is at the end of June.

The first thing you need to start from when making such decisions is how well the business processes in the company are fine-tuned, whether it managed to fully transfer all work online and at the same time maintain efficiency. 

In May, we conducted a survey on our base of partners and clients; 114 companies in Belarus took part in it. It turned out that 77% of organizations went to "remote control" due to the spread of the coronavirus. At the same time, for 74% of respondents, productivity did not change or even increased. Almost a third of the survey participants plan to keep the teleworking format after the pandemic. 

The second factor to focus on is the organizational structure of the business. How is the workload distributed between departments and employees, are there functional managers in the company?

For example, we have a linear structure, all specialists report directly to the director. There are no “extra links” in the team, each employee is 100% loaded and is responsible for his own block of tasks. Such concentration helps to maximize investment in their projects and show high efficiency - regardless of location. In addition, with the arrival of the pandemic, we did not have any issues with staff optimization - each employee is in his place.

As a leader, it is very important for me to keep this cohesive team and protect it from health risks. People need to feel psychologically balanced and secure in order to do their job well. By the way, more than 40% of the respondents in our survey noted that the main advantage of “remote work” is an increase in the sense of security when working from home. 

We are considering the option to gradually return to the office from the second half of July, if the number of new infections in Belarus falls steadily. Perhaps at first the team will come to work with an incomplete composition. We will establish an obligatory rule: each employee must monitor his health and measure the temperature not only in himself, but also in his family members. If there have been no symptoms in the last two weeks, we will be glad to meet at the office! 

Alesya Chumakova, Marketing Specialist at Waumey King:

- Our company switched to remote work in mid-March. At first, the format of remote work and online meetings was unusual, but everyone quickly reorganized and continued to work effectively. Gatherings in the office kitchen have also moved to an online format, and the general chat has been filled with photos in the home interior. 

During meetings and chatting, many employees talk about missing the office and live communication. Nevertheless, there is still no objective reason to return to the office: the daily increase in the number of cases is still large. We care about the health of our employees, so it was decided to extend remote work until the end of the summer. It will be possible to talk about returning to the office when less than 50 cases of the disease are recorded per day. This is the point where we moved to the remote.

For those who need to work in the office to change the environment, or if children interfere at home, we offered the option to come to the office and work there for a limited time. We took care of the safe seating of employees and precautions. The office has masks, antiseptics, office managers check the temperature of colleagues with a non-contact thermometer. During a pandemic, a limited number of people can be in the office at the same time.

The office work option can be used from the beginning of this week, let's see how much it will be in demand. In the meantime, in every way we try to maintain the unique atmosphere of our company remotely. A few days ago, we arranged a delicious and healthy surprise for all our employees - they delivered boxes of fruits and berries to everyone. Judging by the number of words of gratitude in our social networks and chat, the guys were very pleased. In addition, we constantly invite them to participate in various challenges and contests in which the guys show their creativity. We provided everything necessary for those who needed additional equipment or furniture from the office to work comfortably at home until the end of summer. Working remotely has made a difference in our lives, but we are still one big family.

Oleg Bessonov, director of Cotvec: 

- The Cotvec company went on a remote location in March this year. The transition was smooth, due to the peculiarities of the work of fintech projects: a fairly strict framework for information security. Therefore, some of the employees stayed in the office, but basically all switched to remote work. In addition, we tried to minimize the risks of losses in the quality of the services provided. Already in March, the company built the necessary processes, and today, after 3 months, we can confidently say that we have managed to organize a new effective system of work. 

We don't have any strict deadlines for returning to the office. But there is cool news and the expectation of this moment among the employees. Why? Because we are moving! Very soon, a whole floor of a two-story building will become our new office. The renovation is finished, we are making beauty and ready to start! We are confident that the new space will become another stimulus for the development of the company, it will be a place where it is comfortable for a team to work and grow, and to host our clients and partners. 

The new reality shows that a mix of remote and office work is producing good results. It is already hard to imagine some workshops not in zoom or skype call, but in the office meeting room. Moreover, on some projects we have consultants outside Belarus. Therefore, this communication format will remain in the future. 

As for the guys from the Minsk team Cotvec, we are flexible enough and see no point in setting a framework. Anyone who is comfortable and comfortable working in the office can still come to the office. Someone is calmer and safer at home - we give this opportunity. In our work, the main thing is the result, quality, clear terms. Not the number of hours spent in the office. But we all hope that the situation will calm down and we will be able to dilute online chats with traditional offline communication in our cozy kitchen of the new office!

Yuri Levdansky, Director of the Mobile Service company:

- Due to the current epidemiological situation, our company has been operating in a hybrid mode since April: employees can visit the office or perform their duties from home. 

In June, we also continue to work primarily remotely to avoid putting ourselves and others at additional risk of infection. The time to return to the office has not been set yet. In any case, this will be influenced by the situation in the country, for example, when we realize that the number of recoveries is two to three times the number of sick people. 

We are well aware that not all of our employees are comfortable working from home, but our health is a priority. In my opinion, the efficiency of work in the company has not dropped. So, thanks to well-established business processes, our own services and the specifics of our business, we even manage to increase the level of the company's productivity.

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