New Ways of Working is a concept that was driven by covid-19, when many companies began implementing it to cope with the new reality. Some others, however, such as Absa Bank Mozambique, having understood the importance of the new approaches for the satisfaction and retention of their employees, took the first steps even before the pandemic broke out.
With a robust and flexible structure, Absa has created mechanisms that make a difference to its employees' daily lives, such as hybrid working, a strengthened open-plan philosophy and unassigned desks, and it has also leveraged the use of digital tools such as Jabber and MsTeams as means of communication. “We are an organisation that rethinks not only the business environment but also the surrounding areas, and if the world has changed, our way of working must change too. There must be flexibility in the structures to adjust to employees' needs in this VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), and so we seek, step by step, to contribute to this new way of working, which is more collaborative, more autonomous and happier for everyone. This working model requires a great deal of discipline from employees, as they must ensure the sustainability of the business. Only in this way will we remain committed to differentiating our Employee Value Proposition (EVP),” says Hanifa Hassangy, Director of People and Culture.
Alongside this, with technological progress, the existence of platforms such as MsTeams, Skype, Slack, Zoom and Miro, among others, not to mention SMS, WhatsApp and email, has proved that it is no longer necessary to be in an office full time to be a productive member of the team.
The hybrid model required the Bank to promote a primarily remote and decentralised culture that provides freedom, autonomy and flexibility in working relationships. In this way, employees, according to their roles, can choose when and where to work, opting for the working format that best suits their needs, provided that all the requirements of the Bank's data security policy are met, thus achieving a better balance between personal and professional life.
In this process, to make the implementation of hybrid working easier, Absa ensured that all employees were given the structural conditions needed so that the effectiveness of their work would not be affected, by providing furniture, laptops, fixed internet, mobile data and more.
With the implementation of the hybrid model, both the Bank and its employees have benefited, because flexibility has increased talent retention and team performance. Indeed, recent studies by Harvard Business School show that companies that have adopted more flexible working models have increased their employees' productivity, reduced turnover and lowered the organisation's own costs.
However, as with everything, changes in the working environment have required, and will continue to require, the Bank to adapt to new working trends and to value people's potential. Absa has been investing continuously in automating processes and in training its people, making use of new technologies such as Virtual Reality, for example. This innovation, besides breaking down the barrier of distance, has revolutionised the traditional training model, making learning sessions more agile, dynamic, flexible and motivating. Training based on it has very high growth potential and clear benefits, both for the bank and for its employees.
The new ways of working have brought, and will continue to bring, a positive impact to employees' lives. They are implicit proof of mutual trust between employee and employer, giving greater flexibility and autonomy in managing time, a better balance between professional and personal life, and an enrichment of the content of the work through its diversification. In this way, a culture is increasingly developed that is conducive to learning and fosters collaboration, a culture that encourages employees to want to know more, to develop and to commit themselves, becoming agents of change. “Organisations that focus on people are the ones that achieve better results and greater commitment and loyalty from them. That is why we are a bank of people and for people, a bank that places its employees at the centre of its business strategy, regardless of the working model or organisational process adopted,” says Hanifa Hassangy.
