As lockdown lifts Telecoms must forge its own path

The New Normal in Telecoms

By Kevin Taylor, Chairman, Indigo Telecom Group

Wow, August has come around quickly and what a 6 months it has been! Workplaces across all industries have responded to the Covid-19 pandemic robustly and, whilst these have been challenging times for everybody, the safety and wellbeing of employees has been the most important topic.  In the Telecoms industry, we have kept our customers’ networks and data- centres on go, the support and engineering teams have done a great job keeping infrastructure working and office based staff have been able to work remotely to deliver all services to our customers.

Now as we are slowly coming out of lockdown and adapting to a ‘new normal’ there are new questions to answer – how different will the world be going forward? Should remote working become a longer-term option or is back to the office more effective? I guess the answers will be different for each sector as they adapt their operating models.  I am confident that challenges can be overcome, and new opportunities discovered as we reap the benefits of new ways of working.

Remote working or back to the office?

Tech giants like Twitter and Slack have accelerated the shift to remote working and in healthcare, online consultation apps have boomed, and their popularity is likely to continue for the ease, comfort and protection they provide. However, we are seeing challenges in the retail sector due to low footfall of people buying their morning coffee or lunch while heading into work. Hopefully, we may see this situation improving as companies start returning to the office, for example, Barclays CEO Jes Staley signaled he wants all employees back in the office eventually.

Sharing ideas

The conversations and human interaction we have in the office should not be discounted – these ‘water cooler’ moments contribute significantly to creativity, idea sharing and overall culture.  Spontaneous moments of inspiration between colleagues and friends!  The domino effect of wider Covid-19 implications does, of course, mean that the individual circumstances of our employees should be considered, and flexible working arrangements agreed.

Telecoms forges its own path

Here at Indigo, the group encompasses the design, build, and support of global telecommunications networks and many of these jobs demand boots on the ground and face-to-face interaction. Like many other C-Suite Executives out there, I am immensely proud of the way my employees have adapted and worked hard during these unprecedented times.

Covid-19 has forced each industry to examine how it operates and future success will, in no doubt, be dependent on the right blend of employee and customer experiences, financials and operational efficiency.

Read our Covid19 policy document for more details.