Responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath is one of the greatest business challenges of our time.

To keep operating, most companies have adopted new ways of working, leaving their factories and offices empty.

More than a year later, the world looks very different.

As businesses start to recover, management teams have a responsibility to lead their companies through these fast-moving changes.

The company’s HR department also plays an important role.

The crucial thinking and decision-making about the development and execution of “bring employees back safely” plans.

It starts with understanding the workforce challenges they face in a post-pandemic world so they can ask the right questions and serve as a sounding board.

Reimagine How and Where Work Gets Done

As companies look to lives post-pandemic, HR and management are choosing between three basic return-to-work options: bringing everyone back to the office, adopting a hybrid model, or offering more fully remote opportunities.

With the never-ending risks of COVID-19 evolving, companies need to be flexible in reshaping the way employees work.

No doubt their plans will vary wildly, but for those employees who opt for the hybrid model, technology will play a key role in its success.

This too will apply to a company’s management as there may be the need to provide digital tools to enable employees for seamless interaction with each other and with customers in all types of environments.

Looking ahead, nearly half of the management say they plan to increase long-term investments in digital transformation by 10% or more.

This includes technology solutions that support higher levels of remote work, such as productivity analytics and collaboration suites that bridge the gap between those who regularly work in the office and those who work remotely.

Attract and Retain Talents

One of the main reasons employees are rethinking how and where they work is because many want to maintain the flexibility they’ve gained during the pandemic.

Nearly half (44%) of employees say they expect to work remotely three days or more a week after the pandemic.

And there are plenty of stories of people willing to leave their jobs to maintain that flexibility rather than go back to the office.

With the company’s efforts in ensuring a safe and comfortable environment back in the office, Exabytes’ HR team has come out with the following plans to bring back fond memories of where we used to spend most of our day at, and in addition, make the office itself more attractive:

1. Safety First

Sanitising materials at every corner of the office for convenience.

Our HR colleagues came up with physical safety initiatives and policies, which includes symptom checks, physical distancing of workspaces, staggered scheduling, testing, personal protective equipment requirements, enhanced cleaning, and others.

What’s more?

There is a plastic barrier in every seat so that we can communicate with our coworkers safely.

2. Free Breakfast, Lunch, Teabreak

Start your day with a scrumptious breakfast compliments of Exabytes and enjoy a tea o’clock break with pizza delivery by the boss or snacks and a sinful cup noodle from the pantry.

It’s just perfect for employees to enjoy a break together though from a small distance in a common space.

3. Pantry is Fully Filled Up the Snacks and Coffee

Our HR team cares about employees’ health and has filled up our cozy pantry with healthy snacks and beverages.

Here is where we’ll get our power up dose to work on or take a break to strive further!

4. Flexibility

Employees can decide at their convenience to work at the office should they wish too.

In order to be able to work at the office, employees must be fully vaccinated, and perform a self-test one day before entering the office.

The submission of a “work@office” request is done via Easywork.

This does not mean that the choice to work from home has been eliminated.

It shall continue for those who prefer to work from home and believe that working from home can bring them more focus and creativity.

5. Free Training to Help Personal Growth

In order to make sure employees achieve work-life balance, Exabytes is never short of training of all subjects to give employees the opportunities to up our skills and knowledge.

Be it related or not related to our daily tasks, as long as there’s an interest to learn, there’ll be more than a few training sessions for us to join.

While performing our tasks at work, we also have the opportunity to nurture ourselves to be more skillful and knowledgeable.

6. Save the Best for Last

Tell us, is there anyone out there who does not love presents?

Nice and early in the new year, Exabees were all surprised with a huge gift box at our doorstep!

To ensure that we are kept comfortable working from home, each and every one of us were gifted a personalised pillow, yummy snacks, a power bank, and definitely not leaving the essentials of this era out – face masks, sanitary tool kit and some annoying but must-have Covid-19 test kits.

These are not all there is!

Our colleagues who chose and applied to return to the office were surprised with more!

A little fun activity to beautify their desks back in the office, Exabees who returned to the office received a DIY terrarium set each.

Other than being sunk into their daily tasks, this is an activity to remind us to take a break, rest our eyes and spark our creativity the green way.

Today, the ability to attract, develop and retain the best talents has become a key business differentiator, and this pandemic we are faced with has just emphasized this fact.

Thus, while the directors are focused on sustaining and growing its business, the company is focused on retaining its existing talents and recruiting more to grow the team’s creativities and talents.

Is this a working environment you’ve been dreaming of?

Join us!