Starting in the fall, companies will have to combine teleworking and face-to-face production, taking advantage of both and rethinking the way they worked before the pandemic. This is the main conclusion of the colloquium “Back to work safely”, which took place today at 9:00 am at the Iberdrola Tower.
Experts from very diverse fields have participated in it, such as Elena Lazaro, Director of the Iberdrola Tower; Rafael Bengoa, Co-Director of SI-Health and Former Minister of Health of the Basque Country; Alejandro Ormazabal, Vice President of Velatia, and Ruben Carreño, Head of Advisory Services en CBRE España.
“The health situation is increasingly positive. The coronavirus vaccine is getting closer and closer, but there is still more than a year for everyone to be vaccinated. For that, it is very important that we wear masks in the workplace, that we respect safety distances, that we stay together for the shortest possible time and then separate if possible “, explained Rafael Bengoa. He has also pointed out that offices will be safe places as long as there are no massive concentrations of people in closed and poorly ventilated spaces.
The pandemic and mandatory confinement have made companies rethink some of their usual dynamics. Alejandro Ormazabal has spoken of a social, economic and political opportunity to change, even if it is little by little.
“We are learning to telecommute, which has many advantages, because bureaucracy is reduced, time barriers are eliminated and business continuity is allowed; the bad thing is that we have been forced to do it all at once, and that, in many cases, it has brought bad experiences “, has expressed the CO-Director of Velatia.
Since March, More than 90% of companies have adopted teleworking, and from now on they will try to institutionalize it, although not in an absolute way. “Right now organizations are defining these new ways of working. We understand the future in a mixed way; offices will coexist, as they have been until now: a key point of business activity, information exchange, knowledge, creativity and innovation, with a more private or individual environment, such as the home, or with a totally flexible environment, such as coworking “, summarized Rubén Carreño, explaining that, Depending on the type of work, you can also bet on regular telework (1 or 2 days a week), without this meaning giving up social life and coexistence in the office, which you can go to at other times.
For her part, Elena Lázaro, director of the Iberdrola Tower, has had the opportunity to explain how work is being reorganized in the famous Bilbao tower. Nowadays, 700 of the nearly 2,000 workers have returned to face-to-face work that houses the office building.
“We can’t go back to 100% anyway, but we have to start thinking about returning to normality. A good measure is through flexible spaces: if you work in separate teams, you avoid risks; the activity continues and, if someone from one team is infected, the members of another team will be safe “, Lazaro has argued.
We will have to wait until autumn to see how companies, their headquarters and the members of their staff are getting used to a new way of working.
–
