Back to the new reality

The authorities had to backtrack on ‘back-to-office’ decisions due to a surge in Covid-19 cases and its Omicron variant.

Since the beginning of January 2020, the world has been enduring the Covid-19 pandemic, including the Sultanate of Oman. The government has made all the efforts to reduce the impact of this virus on its citizens and residents.

Even though many employees embraced ‘work-from-home’ during the past two years and even managed to attain a considerable degree of efficiency, they were able to revert to full-time work-from-office too, after a long gap.

The Supreme Committee monitoring the Covid-19 situation last week again reduced attendance in government offices to 50 per cent for two weeks in view of the rising number of Omicron infections and hospitalisations across all governorates.

Studies have identified a few trends that are already shaping how we’ll be working and may be a window onto the future of office life.

Since the outbreak of coronavirus infection, the Sultanate of Oman has embarked on a journey for business transformation and technological innovation as part of its commitment to fulfilling Oman Vision 2040.

However, while the country’s output is on a growth path with policy reforms and state-of-the-art infrastructure, a unified approach and synergetic strategy are required to transform it into a skill-driven society. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, the pandemic has brought some industries to a devastating halt, while others are still in the process of adapting to this new reality.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, we witnessed companies in the Sultanate of Oman letting go of their traditional business models and adopting the latest possible modes of operating. This move has been particularly noticeable in companies that had not moved assets to the cloud and were now doing so at full throttle”, points out the report.

In a matter of weeks, the Sultanate of Oman became a society where remote working was no longer a consideration for the future but a present-day reality.

In cooperation with the Supreme Committee on Covid-19, the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology has launched the ‘work from home’ initiative in March 2020. The initiative aimed to provide the government entities and staff with all required infrastructure and tools to continue the government tasks.

The ministry exerted great efforts to support all government entities and provide secure connections and environments on the government cloud.

The pandemic has also set in motion the wide acceptance of part-time work, as temporary work, “gig”, or freelance work become part of the “new normal”. Many people may now juggle a number of projects rather than jobs in their work portfolio at any one time.

“This is advantageous to the Omani economy where new industries are yet to open. Young Omanis are free to offer their skills and services to multiple companies simultaneously. This variety of projects will allow them to gain a range of experience that a traditional job position may no longer offer”, the report opines.

At the same time, the leaders in human resources will need to rethink the workforce, employee training and approaches to measuring performance. Criteria for employment will perhaps be more inclusive of a diverse skill set rather than focused on region-based experience, while potential candidates will be bold enough to question an employer’s integrity.

The Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry has recognised this benefit and is currently in the process of setting up an effective plan that enables part-time work for one and all.

@samkuttyvp