'Important to equip staff with the right tools to succeed'

Ghinwa Baradhi, Chief Information Officer MENAT, HSBC, UAE, highlights the need for teaching employers in using the technology effectively

As futurists, commentators, experts in artificial intelligence and happiness at work, give us your insight into the future of work/workplace and what we can expect in the next 5 to 10 years?
The current pandemic has highlighted the need to care for and collaborate with our colleagues remotely, which is essential for the evolving future of work. The use of technologies such as artificial intelligence are an enabler to working more efficiently and creating value for customers, and will continue to become more prevalent in the workplace, across all roles and teams. It is important that organisations collect and aggregate data in a responsible way, more data leads to better decision making capability. Technology has become ingrained in our daily routine, both personally and professionally, and the knowledge and skills to manage the latest tools and applications will be essential going forward.
When organisations talk about data science and artificial intelligence enabling remote work, where do you think they should start? What are the must-not-ignore factors?

A good place to start would be understanding the critical roles and functions in your workplace, and equipping those staff with the right tools to succeed. Also assessing the infrastructure and architecture to get the basics right from the start, for example ensuring bandwidth and storage is sufficient. AI is underpinned by having accurate and reliable data, so a thorough assessment of your data collection, cleansing and management practices is needed. Must-not ignore factors include ensuring controls are effective such as cyber security, fraud, and risk. In addition, frequent communication with employees and looking after their well-being are critical to success in a remote working environment. We must not take for granted that there is a mindset and culture change needed to enable remote working, it's not only a matter of having the right tools.
What business approach would you suggest to companies looking to create a digital customer experience?

It starts with listening to and understanding customers, what their needs and wants are, and delivering experiences to delight them. Customers expect a real-time, anywhere, anytime experience so digital solutions should be the default choice. Technology is there to support the business models, and should not be the "star of the show" but rather the supporting cast.
What are some of the noticeable achievements of HSBC MENAT when it comes to enabling/building/scaling remote or distributed teams?

For many of our colleagues, remote working has been part of their routine for years, so it was a relatively smooth transition to split site and then full working from home. Before the pandemic, 57 per cent of staff were able to work remotely. Within the first two weeks of making the decision to deploy a split site rotation, home working increased to 80 per cent. Zoom videoconferencing was also enabled for staff to continue communications with colleagues and customers. In the first week of May alone, nearly 15,000 meetings were held across the region on Zoom. The success of this hinged on extensive learning sessions for our staff to ensure they were comfortable with the new tools. Many teams have started daily check-in meetings to ensure staff are managing challenges such as work life balance and personal health and well-being is at the forefront.
What can delegates/attendees take away from your session at the Remote Workforce Summit?

Preparation and quick action are key success factors to enabling a remote workforce. Attendees can take away some tips and lessons learned from a global organisation on getting the basics right and creating customer value and employee satisfaction through enabling technology to support business needs.
Lastly, have you got a favorite quote or a quote that you live by?
Learn and be curious!
 

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