Working remotely is back on the agenda for HR departments across the region as employees are forced to isolate, either through close contact or testing positive albeit the majority with mild or no symptoms.
While hospitals have been untroubled, due to high vaccination rates having the intended effect and the latest variant – omicron – proving to be much less severe, offices are having to retool with as seats are left vacant amid precautions.
The latter half of 2021 had seen the number of covid-19 cases in the UAE drop to less than a 100 a day and the country had largely returned to “the new normal” with companies requesting employees go back to the office or adopting a hybrid model of remote and in-person work.
However, the newest global wave of coronavirus, driven by the highly contagious but mild omicron variant first discovered in the UAE early December, has seen positive cases across the country rise, with the Ministry of Health reporting on Friday 3,068 positive cases in the 24-hour period.
Although continued vigilance is mandated, and getting a covid vaccine booster shot is strongly encouraged, the typically mild symptoms experienced by those infected with omicron meant that UAE’s hospitals have not been impacted – indeed late December, health spokesperson Noura Al Ghaithi said that covid-19 bed iccypancy rate was below 3 percent. “Omicron is way less impactful than the delta (variant) and even during delta we haven’t locked down the country. The has been there throughout the omicron for sure and with any future variants when it comes to corona, we will not go back to the full lockdown of the country,” Thani Al-Zeyoudi, the minister of state for foreign trade,
“Half my company in Dubai have recently had covid-19 or been affected by the troubles created with travelling due to the pandemic. None of our staff have had any serious issues, thankfully, and in fact half of the people that had coronavirus in our team had no idea they had it all while others just had what they thought was a mild cold,” said Justin McGuire, co-founder & CEO – Middle East and Asia, DMCG Global.
Given the mildness of the majority of symptoms, McGuire believes that “much like in the UK, Spain and parts of Europe, we need to move from pandemic to endemic acceptance. The UAE has been very forward thinking.
“The world is in a very different place to where it was when all this started. The mental health toll this has taken on people and businesses is too much. All our clients, all the people I know, just want to get on with living, and living with covid is how it will be from now on. So let’s get on with it,” added McGuire.
UAE’s schools have also had their share of the latest coronavirus-inspired challenges as schools in Abu Dhabi went back to distance learning following the winter holidays, and are set to resume in-person classes the week of January 28 some private sector schools in Dubai followed suit.
“The past two years have brought about many changes in education – distance learning, blended learning, new exam formats, bubbles, reduced face-to-face activities and more online – and each of these has provided both challenges and opportunities,” said Matthew Burfield, vice president – Education at GEMS Education and principal/CEO of GEMS Founders School – Dubai.
Since the emergence of the omicron variant and the start of 2022, schools have had to carefully navigate increases in staff absence due to testing positive or being a close contact. This applies to not only teaching staff, but also support staff that help to ensure schools operate smoothly and effectively,” he continued.
“With the health, safety and wellbeing of students, teachers and staff always foremost in mind, and in close cooperation with, and approval from, the education regulators, schools have had to carefully analyse their individual circumstances on an ongoing basis in order to decide whether to switch to remote learning. In Abu Dhabi, that decision has of course been made by the authorities,” Burfield added.
“We are now seeing firms moving to voluntary office attendance with some closing their offices. For firms with voluntary attendance, there are strong reminders to wash hands, social distance and mask-wearing (even suggesting wearing N95 masks) and we have even heard of some firms requiring morning and afternoon temperature tests and antigen tests,” said Ray Everett, senior partner, Human Capital Solutions at Aon.
While the severity to omicron appears to be much lower than delta and previous strains, the risk of many employees getting sick at the same time is very high as we have seen in hospitals and airlines. This can have a serious business continuity impact,” he continued.
“Communication is critical. Reminders of all the safety protocols is important as is a clear message that if employees or their family members are sick or if they have been contact traced, they should stay home and they will not have their pay withheld,” he added.
Proponents of remote working argue that, in today’s digital world, flexibility should be commonplace among corporates as the next crisis preventing employees from coming to the office could be just around the corner.
“What HR departments need to keep in mind is that this year, it’s covid, or delta or omicron – or whatever name they’re going to come up for the next variant – but there’s always going to be a new challenge that we’re faced with and we need to constantly remember that,” said Sara Boueri, HR, Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA).
“One thing we learned from the pandemic is how important it is to trust employees and to have this faith in them, whereby we’re not policing them anymore. And we need to look away from the standard nine to five, it doesn’t work. All it does is it adds unnecessary bureaucracy and it limits people’s potentials,” she continued.
“One thing for HR to keep in mind, irrespective of covid, is that we’re not here to police. We’re here to help people be creative and to grow. So we just need to trust and remember the benefits that came from this trust that we gave our employees,” she added.
