Prior to the pandemic, the widespread adoption of remote work was relatively novel, especially in a country where business transactions are largely carried out face to face. To support the transition, the MCIT encouraged employees to work from home, while balancing efficiency and productivity with health and wellness measures.
According to Talaat, it was important to change the work style. “Now the culture of working from home is prevalent in Egypt, and is more and more acceptable,” he told OBG.
“Hopefully, when the pandemic is over, people will not go back to how they learned or worked before.”
The private sector quickly adopted measures to stem the outbreak of Covid-19, such as shifting operations online and implementing remote work. According to a survey published in April 2020 by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, more than 90% of respondents had adopted infection-control procedures, and nearly all had shifted non-essential employees to remote work.
For ITO and BPO companies, between 50% and 85% of employees were working from home within the first two weeks of the pandemic. ITIDA sampled 19 companies a few weeks later and found that 11 companies were 100% remote, five companies were 80-90% remote and three companies were 50-60% remote. Per ITIDA’s discussions with the surveyed companies, productivity decreased slightly in the first two weeks when employees were adjusting and getting used to new tools, but productivity then resumed to levels previously seen in the office.
Read More from OBG
