Corporate DispatchPro Isabelle Micallef Bonello
Technology – a silver lining of the Covid era The Covid-19 shock accelerated the adoption of technology across business sectors. The need to reach customers online necessitated company-wide adoption of new automated technology-enabled solutions. The need for social distancing, for example, changed corporate working methods accelerating the adoption of teleworking and, now, the rotation of workers at company’s offices. Applications in telemedicine started to take shape, and various other technology-enabled applications that have long been in the planning finally came to fruition.
As we emerge into the ‘new normal’, there is a consistent effort to adopt such practices for the long-term. GPs have set-up online platforms for medical advice, private hospitals have introduced new helplines, periodic medical assessment of patients moved online, as the medical sector tipped towards the adoption of ICT in a sector which so far had been shying away from the use of technology for the delivery of its service. Teleworking is, indeed, encouraged and unions representing employees are pushing for the adoption of a legal framework while the first case-studies of local companies who have permanently moved the majority of their operations remotely are emerging. The benefits of less commuting constantly feature in the media. In its continuous effort to boost Gozo’s economy the Government is offering salary reimbursement for employees who work remotely from Gozo while part of their equipment is also subsidized. As workers experience the added benefits of less commuting and a better work-life balance, the corporate world is being convinced that productivity levels are not affected by remoteness, and in some cases, it has been documented to actually increase. 13
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