Etisalat Employees Are Working from Home as Telecom Giant Puts in Serious Social Distancing Measures

The last month has proven that no precaution is too extreme as Coronavirus spreads through the world. Health officials and experts have declared social distancing and increased hygiene as the best tactic communities can take to help curb the pandemic, but regional telecom giant Etisalat has gone several steps further in protecting its employees, customers and the country at large with a slew of new measures and practices across the company. The measures that have been taken proves a lot regarding how Etisalat was awarded to be one of the country’s Top Employers.

As early as January 2020, Etisalat started to preach against the virus by distributing WHO and Egyptian Ministry of Health guidelines internally and increase awareness among their staff. In the last few months, those efforts have been seriously ramped up as the threat became very real. Almost 90% of Etisalat staff are now working from home.

For those critical functions which have to be performed at the office, stores or on-site, Etisalat has not only implemented daily deep sanitization at all their facilities but made sure that all customer-facing and outdoor employees have gloves, face masks and sanitizers. They’ve also made sure that all employee buses are sanitized between every trip, added more buses every day so commuters can spread out and take every employee's temperature before they enter any of Etisalat’s offices or stores with contactless infrared thermometers. ‘No handshakes’ signs become the norm and social distancing protocols have been applied in elevators, across their office spaces and for customers queuing at their stores.

Meanwhile, Etisalat has truly gone above and beyond for their staff by making sure doctors are available in their company clinics, increased uncertified sick days from three to nine days, and implemented a contactless app-based medical insurance claim process.

The story didn’t end there. The HR department wanted to keep their business flowing and that’s why they’ve shifted their HR activities online, canceling all in-person training, contract signings and face-to-face interviews, and swapping them for video conferencing calls instead. They’ve also got online training sessions and e-learning solutions to make sure the remote working environment is managed in the most efficient way.

All these measures taken simply shows that Etisalat is a truly responsible employer who cares about the safety and the wellbeing of all of its employees while ensuring that they continue to provide their best service to their customers.