Tag: video conferencing

There is little doubt that there is now a mass understanding, or at the very least, mass awareness, of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). Paradoxically, that is thanks to the global COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are some serious 4IR policy considerations that do not seem to be getting the right levels of attention and focus on the African continent. 4IR has to be a matter of national agenda; national economic and political sovereignty & national security - necessitating commensurate prioritisation.

Leverage virtual meeting tools and capabilities to cement customer and employee relationships. The current coronavirus pandemic has caused many countries such as UK, USA, Italy, Spain, South Africa and Germany, among others to follow a lockdown approach.

The issue is whether an employer may utilise Zoom when conducting consultations in a retrenchment exercise. If not, does the continuation of the consultations in such circumstances result in procedural unfairness? The Labour Relations Act 66 of 1995 (LRA) does not regulate how section 189 consultations are to be held (i.e. in person or via video conference).

The human resources (HR) challenge for this new world of work will be that best answers for dealing with these tectonic changes will likely come from employees, and not from an HR or change expert. Remember our mantra here: we’re in uncharted waters. After five months of this pandemic, we hope we’ve all torn up our company policy documents.

Entrepreneurial businesses both small and medium have been particularly hit hard in these challenging times, and many are now facing an existential threat. However, there are ways to rethink their business models and adapt to a world which is unlikely to return to its old habits. 

One of the aspects of the coronavirus has been the sudden evacuation of offices and mass adoption of home working. As a result, some real estate investors believe the working from home experiment that’s taken place during this crisis will lead to a long-term decline in demand for offices.  

South Africa’s telecommunications (telcos) companies need to rapidly evolve by adding additional services for a new mobile working and learning world in order to stay relevant and profitable.  Their legacy business model of telcos which has long sold data and SMS packages to consumers, is no longer enough on its own - a fact that has been brought into stark relief throughout the lockdown period. 

The world has changed. While some aspects of life will return to its former state before COVID-19, much will not be the same again. Brands and agencies alike need to think differently and design communications strategies that now factor in the use of digital, purpose-led campaigns, and in-home consumption vs out-of-home consumption, in essence the rebirth of creativity in a post-pandemic world.

The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has forced business, education, and social activities to be conducted virtually. But amidst the crisis, platform companies are enabling video conferencing, food, grocery and essential supplies delivery, AI-driven COVID-19 tracking, social connectivity, and entertainment for a restless population sheltering in place.

After nearly two months of remote working, South Africans are ready to get back to working in the office as the initial novelty of remote working has revealed unexpected difficulties, detracting from people doing their jobs properly. The reality of working from home was certainly different to expectations now that we are well into what is a giant social experiment.