For a year and a half now, the whole world has been living in pandemic conditions and restrictions. Almost all companies in Russia have moved their employees to remote work (if it was possible) since the announcement of the lockdown in March 2020. It was only in June that the restrictions gradually began to ease.

Today, companies are gradually returning to the pre-lockdown mode, but having undergone clear changes. For example, in late May the consulting company Knight Frank conducted a survey among 400 international companies and found that a third of tenants around the world plans to reduce spending on offices by more than 10%.Another two-thirds have already adjusted their plans to save by restructuring the office space.

We decided to talk to representative offices of major companies in Russia and find out how their office life has changed in the year since the restrictions were lifted.

URGENT RETHINKING

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a televised address on 25 March. This, in fact, was the beginning of the lockdown.

However, Mail.ru Group told the editors of Made in Russia that the IT corporation transferred over 7.5 thousand of its employees to remote work back on March 15, and it took just one day to do so. And already in April, the transition process to a hybrid office format began. In other words, employees can now come to the office not for day-to-day work, but to generate ideas together and interact in teams. At the same time, each business unit decides for itself how best to work: remotely, choose a classic work option or a hybrid form.

Kaspersky Lab has started to send employees to work remotely, first in regions with a large number of infections and then everywhere else where the company has offices.

It took the company two weeks to deploy all its staff (which includes 4,000 employees worldwide). Kirill Shiryaev, head of Kaspersky Lab's Human Resources Center of Expertise, told the Made in Russia project.

Since all companies were to completely reconfigure all work processes for the first time, many tasks were new to them.

Kaspersky Lab set up a task force to monitor the coronavirus situation, which included representatives from virtually all departments, and developed a special transition guide for personnel to work remotely.

"From the technical point of view, our colleagues themselves quickly enough understood what they would need during the period of self-isolation: they asked to issue laptops, provide access to resources via VPN and remote access to desktops, set up corporate e-mail on smartphones," said Shiryaev.

The load on the IT-support and HR-departments was much higher these days. For example, the HR-department had to process about 1.5 thousand employees' requests during the first three weeks of the remote work. This is five times more than the usual flow.

Mail.ru Group divided all the tasks with setting up work processes in the new realities into several groups. In the first case it was about technical equipment - the issuance of equipment, setting up remote access and providing the ability to participate in video conferencing.

In addition, it was required to adapt all HR processes to work remotely in such a way as to issue hardware and sign documents during hiring without visiting the office. "Thanks to this, we did not stop hiring for a single day even during the periods of the most severe epidemiological restrictions", - stressed the corporation.

After that, adaptation of other support services to the new format of work began, including a service of psychological assistance, organization of sports training, training programs, family and children's leisure activities. "We expanded VMI programmes and organised support for those who fall ill, online medical consultations and tests," the IT holding added.

WILL THERE BE A RETURN TO THE OFFICES?

The press service of "Sber" told our editorial office that to date the bank has three options for work mode (remote, office or hybrid), and the staff can choose the most suitable for themselves. For example, if an employee does not serve clients and does not work with personal data, they can work from home or come to the office only several times a week.

Between half and 80% of the bank's employees now work in Sber offices in different regions.

"Part of the staff chose to work in hybrid mode. And we have decided that after the pandemic we will leave about 30% of our staff in mixed or remote mode. We have already calculated the savings and reduction of the corresponding office space and factored it into our new business plan," the press office said.

Mail.ru Group employees are gradually returning to the offices as well, but only those who have expressed a desire to work in traditional or hybrid mode themselves. About one third of all staff decided to continue working remotely.

After the restrictions are lifted, the company intends to leave the majority of people working remotely. Only events, brainstorming sessions and strategic sessions are planned to return to the office.

The corporation said that it will not reduce its space, but wants to form in the existing offices a new communication space for the creation of innovations and ideas. "New technology areas for team interaction, single meeting rooms or standing work areas will be created for this task," the IT holding said.

Kaspersky Lab's management decided to extend the remote working format until October. However, some people (but not more than 30% to ensure effective security measures) may come to the office if they wish.

HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC YEAR CHANGED OPERATIONS?

Despite the difficulties of the last year Mail.ru Group was able to scale its business and increase revenue by 21.2% to 107 billion rubles by providing users with various products and technologies.

Many companies rethought internal processes during the quarantine and became more sensitive to employee requests. Kaspersky Lab, for example, regularly conducts "pulse surveys" to help understand how to improve the company's climate.

"There was an interesting moment: in one of these surveys, it turned out that people severely lacked the usual computer chairs at home - and we suggested that employees take them out of the office," Kirill Shiryaev shared.

Overall, the pandemic has become a serious challenge for many companies and forced them to make fairly non-trivial decisions in a short time, while showing flexibility and adaptability - characteristics which are likely to remain among the most important in the new economic reality, which is still being formed.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova