Accra, Ghana, June 1, 2020//-Banking and ICT experts are of the view that the much trumpeted future of work concept is here to stay and urged businesses, institutions and individuals to embrace the new reality.
According to them, the ravaging COVID-19 had actually expedited the future of work. So businesses need to have clear policies to guide them to succeed in this new reality.
They made the call at the just ended 28th MTN Business World Breakfast Meeting held in Accra, Ghana.
The future of work as defined by Deloitte is: “The growing adoption of artificial intelligence in the workplace, and the expansion of the workforce to include both on- and off-balance-sheet talent.”
Things won’t be the same after COVID-19
Setting the ball rolling at the virtual breakfast meeting, Julian Opuni, CEO Fidelity Bank Ghana, said: “Without a doubt, once the COVID-19 passes, things will not be the same. I think any business will be fairly naive to think that they can go back to the old ways of working”.
He explained that; “the remote way of working is now effectively here to stay. And certain capabilities we did think were not available suddenly have become evident”.
Meetings happen not necessarily with eight to 10 people in the room but the ability to do lots of meetings within a short space of time have now become a way of life, he added.
Even the protocols around working regularly, having meetings remotely with your colleagues are all here to stay with us, according to him.
With the level of traffic and activity, we now have to quickly scale up certain parts of the business that may not be seen evidently critical to delivery of our services.
For Franklyn Asare, Country Director of Oracle Ghana: “The future of work is indeed here. We have been talking about the future of work for long time. But I think COVID-19 has brought it home”.
Ultimately, “we are talking about how to manage our customer expectation from the company perspective. We have to do that now with technology as well as with talent”.
Talent is now going to power digitization
He believes that talent is now going to power digitization and be the enabler and accelerator behind digital efforts in this space.
“The reality is that, employees are going to work remotely that will go on for very long time”.
Constant tension
Ehi Benitie Co-Founder Rancard and CEO of Clear Space Labs, noted that there is this constant tension between mobility-which is people moving around and people moving goods around; and communication-which is the need for people to engage.
As mobility has sort of decreased, the need for communication has increased. And in simple tense, you have fewer taxies and more virtual calls, he added.
Mr Benitie continued: “So your meetings they way in which they happen and the channels are evolving with the rise and fall of particular industries”.
He indicated that their responsibility in times like this is to ensure that businesses have the ability to respond to digital channels faster and can take advantage of the opportunities which data and communication present in solving the problems.
“So, these two things I think are the important drivers of the time. So in the long term, statistically-speaking, I don’t think COVID-19 will really matter. It will be an accelerator. But in the short term, businesses have to evolve, and the nature of working is changing”.
Transparency and accountability
Ms Estelle Akofio Sowah, West Africa Regional Manager, CSquared was quick to say transparency is missing in this new era of work.
In her words: “When you are all at the same place, you will know or see what is happening. So, companies need to create transparency in this new reality of work to be able to record and hold employees accountable”.
Everything is being done digitally
The CEO of MTN Ghana, Selorm Adadevoh asked: “Who would have thought that there will be a time when almost everything in this world will be done digitally?”
Today we are working from home, our children are all learning and doing “home school” online, doctors are doing diagnosis online as the first line of choice and entertainment is being done solely through the power of the internet”.
This indeed is a new world order and technology remains a critical driver in this discussion, he stated.
Bold new digital world
“For us at MTN, we have spent several years preparing ourselves to deliver a bold new digital world to our customers and we are happy to say that in this period of COVID-19 we are delivering just that. We are embracing the ‘new normal’ of doing a whole lot of activities through digital means”.
Theme of the breakfast meeting was- ‘The Future of Work is here– Preparing the Work Place for New Talents Needs’.
African Eye Report
