KUALA LUMPUR: Work From Home (WFH) used to be a privilege offered by a handful of companies in the country, but now, with the Movement Control Order (MCO) in place, it has become the norm.
Many companies have been forced to make the shift from traditional operating methods to full or partial WFH.
For some, the transition has been smoother than others, especially if employees are already well-versed in remote working practices and the technology needed for it was made available even before the MCO.
THE BENEFITS OF FLEXIBILITY
Lewis Malaysia, an integrated communications agency that provides marketing solutions to companies, is one such example.
Its global staff count is 500 and here in Malaysia, its team comprises 10 individuals with various skills such as digital, PR and social media marketing.
“Our team is highly flexible. We use a number of tools, and communication is the key to keeping things running.
“Depending on our clients’ needs, we use a wide range of apps including Google Hangouts, Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype.
“These allow us to not only communicate with each other, but also run interactive sessions as we would in person,” said Lewis Malaysia’s managing director, Chong Ee Ann.
She said Lewis was a cloud-enabled company and adopted a number of measures such as Virtual Private Network (VPN) and two-factor authentication which ensured security measures were always in place.
Its globally-connected and robust information technology team reviews the necessary measures on an ongoing basis.
“As a cloud-enabled and digital-first corporation, we have been fortunate to experience minimal business disruption in terms of working from home.
“The concept is not a foreign one for our team members who have been allowed the flexibility to do so even before the MCO came into effect last month” said Chong.
She believes the answer to facing greater challenges was in change and innovation and the speed at which a company could reinvent and adapt to what is now the “new normal”.
Wei Yein Leong, founder of Craftiviti, a small- and medium enterprise selling do-it-yourself personal care materials which also has an e-commerce site, said her team used Microsoft 365 for all its communications.
“We do team huddles and meetings on Microsoft Teams, and conduct all our scheduling and planning on Microsoft Planner.
“We even conducted a 90-minute Facebook Live session for over 150 people with our team coordinating via Microsoft Word online.
“We also chat on WhatsApp, mostly light banter and amusing updates to keep our motivation up,” said Leong.
She added that there would be no challenges as long as there was constant and clear communication and team members frequently touched base with each other.
CONNECTING FRONTLINERS
For the healthcare industry, it is business as usual during this time, given their role as an essential service.
Chief executive officer of Pantai Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Erica Lam, said her team consisted of over 200 specialist doctors, with 1,500 staff inclusive of clinical and non-clinical workers.
For those working from home, they use SSL VPN (Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network), a secure remote access connection where staff are protected by firewall access from the home public network.
“Once staff are connected to SSL VPN, they can access all the hospital’s systems similar to when they are working in the hospital.
“We also use Skype for virtual meetings, both international or domestic and for meetings between team members, international agents and local clients,” said Lam.
WhatsApp is also used as a feasible means of communication between those working from home and working from hospita).
In Can-Care, an SME which operates in the healthcare industry offering products and services to support the well-being of cancer patients and their families, team members use a variety of telecommunication tools such as Zoom, WhatsApp video, text messages and normal calls to stay connected.
“Besides using these to connect among the team, we also use them to stay connected with our customers, mainly patients and healthcare professionals,” said general manager of Can-Care, Joeanne Wong.
As Can-Care’s business requires physical fitters to help patients find the best fitting breast prosthesis and mastectomy bras for breast cancer survivors, it has now launched an extended service where they can do virtual fittings for patients.
“Our aim is to continue serving patients despite the restrictions in physical movement.
“We want to ensure that we provide the same experience that they would get at our outlet,” added Wong.
“We also use tools like Zoom and WhatsApp video to communicate with patients. So far, feedback has been positive.”
However, Internet line instability did cause some inconvenience, especially during virtual meetings, said Wong.
SOME CHALLENGES REMAIN
Working from home is also not easy, especially for women with children because they need to juggle both taking care of children (meals, online homework and classes, etc) and office work.
“There is also no fixed working time.
“Working from home means working round the clock, balancing work and personal life,” she said.
A senior member of the insurance industry, who declined to be named, said with available technology, WFH should not be a hurdle for any organisation.
She herself heads a team of 90 and is involved in the board of two companies — one Malaysian and the other Asean-based.
Her team communicates using Zoom and Microsoft Teams daily and their online meetings can run from one to five hours.
In her case, she prefers WFH because there are fewer distractions.
“However, I tell my team members that they need to set boundaries as to when they are working and when they are done.
“Connecting regularly with one another is also important.”
For Syukrina Mokhtar, an account manager with Touch PR, a regional creative public relations agency headquartered in Singapore but with offices in Malaysia and Thailand, applications like WhatsApp, Outlook, Google Slides, Zoom and Skype have proved essential during this time although there are some restrictions when it comes to virtual meetings, especially when physical documents have to be signed.
“The video conference features in Zoom and Skype help a lot in terms of saving commuting time and getting things running faster. But with technology, everything goes great until you have a spotty Internet connection,” she said.
Syukrina who has a three-year-old daughter, said managing her child was also essential to ensuring a “good WFH day”.
She plans activities for her child and she and her husband take turns to supervise her while they are working.