Driven by its national responsibility and concern for the health and safety of its employees, Omantel has introduced the “Work from Home” model for its employees in the company’s HQ as a precautionary and preventive measure to combat the spread of coronavirus (COVID 19), in compliance with the recommendations of the Supreme Committee on Corona Virus.

During the past period, Omantel has closely monitored the developments of the coronavirus and the national measures that have been taken to control the transmission of the virus among members of the society in compliance with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations. Since then, Omantel has carried out several precautionary measures in this regard such as temporary suspension of the fingerprint, and “Work from Home” for a big portion of its employees in the headquarters through the development of an integrated plan to ensure continuity of the company’s operations as well as to continue providing its customers with innovative solutions and services.

Commenting on the matter, Ibtihal bint Mohammed Al-Riyami, General Manager of Organisation Planning at Omantel, said, “Our Employees are the most valuable asset and this is why the company has always pursued a well-developed human resources strategy. We have been always striving to offer our people a flexible and innovation-conducive work environment. This approach has proven to be efficient and increased our employees’ productivity. “Working from Home” concept was first introduced in 2018 on a pilot project basis, and Omantel expanded the experiment last year. Having a previous experience meant that we are today in a better position to respond to exceptional circumstances such as coronavirus. We decided to include 22% of the company’s employees in this strategy, yet we can increase this percentage according to the current situation development on the national level. The “Work from Home” concept is a reflection of a new economic culture based on “work from anywhere” without the obligation to attend to the company premises. This will be reflected in the employee job satisfaction and the appreciation towards their organisation which will be ultimately reflected positively in performance”.

On the criteria that was followed for the selection of employees,  Ibtihal said, “We have followed certain criteria for the selection process, which included the health status of employees which requires them to stay at home as recommended by the World Health Organization and mothers with children, without affecting the workflow in the company,” pointing out that all employees have been provided with required devices to facilitate their work in the fullest way away from office, taking into account all cyber security measures to prevent any illegal penetration attempts.

Ibtihal explained that the “Work from Home” concept supports the government’s aspirations to reduce congestion in institutions and companies, which reflects positively in reducing the spread of the coronavirus on the one hand and promotes digital transformation and the use of innovative solutions on the other hand.  It also provides an opportunity to test this new working system which is implemented by many companies after it proved to be effective and may be the way in the future for some jobs.