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Current circumstances requiring workers to remain as socially distant as possible can pose huge operational challenges for utility companies. At Utility Week Live Online three speakers discussed how their respective companies have adapted technology to help connect and protect their workforce during a pandemic.
Utility Week Live Online’s Connecting and protecting a productive workforce session saw speakers from UK Power Networks (UKPN), Software AG and SGN gather to discuss their experiences of utilising different technologies to help keep operations going during the pandemic.
James Cotter, contact centre manager at UKPN, talked about how his company has introduced a new workforce planning app described as the “jewel” in the company’s crown of IT applications.
Prior to the app’s launch UKPN was using an outdated contact centre system which Cotter said resulted in lower satisfaction scores compared to other network operators. The new technology introduces an automated service, providing flexibility and allowing the company to better manage its workforce.
Cotter said: “Whilst the app was in place before Covid there was no way we could have achieved the balance of homeworking and office working, and those rotations, without the technology. The way we were working before it would not have been possible.”
He added: “The pandemic has enabled us to think differently, to challenge ourselves, to trust and use technology in the right places and that’s made a real difference to us. It’s certainly enabled us to be dynamic in a way that we just could not have done before.”
Ben Croxford, senior business partner, SHE (safety, health and environment) development at SGN, agreed and said that he believes the pandemic has forced the sector to rethink how it conducts its business.
“Covid was the catalyst for digital transformation because we were forced down an avenue where we had to incorporate these technologies to continue our way of working.
“So we kept up to date with the latest information relating to the company and for managers to speak to their teams about non-emergency issues they had to do so through these platforms. It sparked a creative mindset within industry that they are open to changes in ways of working that wouldn’t have been unlocked if it was not for Covid.”
“If Covid had hit us 10 years ago, we would not have had the kind of response we’ve had now”, Bart Schouw, chief evangelist at Software AG, said, referencing the availability of virtual working.
Schouw referenced “smart social distancing”, where technology is used to help maintain a safe distance where employees cannot work from home, which he discussed in his earlier talk.
“Humans like to work together, even if it’s possible to work from home I think we have to strike a balance where we can also meet physically. We understand the values of meeting physically”, he added.
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