Uncertain times call for decisive
actions, and decisions need to be taken at a much quicker pace than one would
do in the normal course. Both data points and market news point to a
catastrophe with the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak; there are public health
challenges confronting the leaderships of several countries and nearly all
businesses at large. As leaders of professional service firms, how we respond to
the challenges will largely drive our respective firms’ growth and positioning
in the market and ensure that our teams and the communities around us remain
safe and healthy. As part of a functioning society, the question to ask is:
have we done our bit as a responsible firm and as a responsible professional?
Increasingly, either by safety
concerns or by regulatory enforcement, most firms have already grounded their
teams to a partial or a complete work from home (WFH) mode, or are in the
process of doing so. By definition, WFH means that one needs to be working from
one’s confines and not be ‘surrounded’ by people. This also means that teams
will need to be effective in their pursuits whilst working from home.
Can we therefore practice quarantine in its truest form, i.e., meditation,
which is nothing but quarantine of the mind, and to think better? Aligning
one’s mindset to WFH needs practice and some good refreshing ideas.
TECHNOLOGY
Here are some thoughts on increasing
effectiveness during these WFH times.
Imagine a situation where you are
not allowed to access your office servers or data files for a prolonged period of time.
(i) How
will you conduct your professional engagements?
(ii) How will you discharge your tax and regulatory compliance obligations?
(iii) How will you ensure data protection and exchange of client
information without running the risk of privacy breach, or confidentiality
invasions?
Using cloud technology has
never been more needed than in today’s times.
Experts have long argued for
cloud-based systems to address efficiencies that help in remote working and
active collaboration. Hosting your data on the cloud and having virtual
desktops seems to be the right way to think. A lot of products are available in
the market for cloud servers, right from IBM to Alibaba Cloud and a host of
local service providers.
Collaboration and conferencing tools
such as Zoom, Google Meet, Skype and Microsoft Teams and many others allow
teams sitting remotely to interact with each other on a real-time basis,
without having the need to meet physically.
Technology
is all-pervasive and, during such times when we have no choice, the adversities
bring out solutions that help firms to adapt and align their practices to be
benchmarked to global standards. It may need a change in mindset and a
commitment to unlearn and relearn, but in the end it is all worth the while.
Imagine, if everything you can do in your physical office is now available in
the comfort of your homes and your teams don’t have to commute or travel for
getting their work done, the additional productivity would mean that so much
more work can be accomplished.
Traditional VPN-based models may
also be effective with static IPs. There could be challenges of too many people
trying to access the network at the same time and resultant delays and output.
For this, Microsoft Office 365 itself provides a host of applications.
ROBUST PROCESSES
Of course, you may explore any
technology that works for the firm. Being smart about it and investing the
right mind space and resources in technology usage will yield good dividends
for the practice in times to come, much beyond the WFH period.
When a firm is adopting WFH, one of
the key elements to a successful strategy is to ensure that it has robust
processes in place for exchange of information, planning for an engagement,
conduct of fieldwork, review of work performed by the team members and final
delivery of an engagement. Processes should include the following:
(a) Planning
for remote working, rules and to-do’s: HR teams should send out early
notifications of what teams should do whilst a WFH is in place;
(b) The
fieldwork stage of engagements during WFH would mean that you are not monitored
at every step, nor can you expect to reach out for assistance ‘on call’. You
will have to brace for individual efforts much more than what you are normally
accustomed to in a team environment. This calls for processes for increasing
individual performance such as:
(1) Planning
the day for specific and achievable goals and targets whilst having to WFH;
(2) Prioritisation
of what comes first and focusing on the task at hand;
(3) Organising
conference calls with the team lead / manager to ensure that you have a
sign-off on the work you are performing;
(4) Challenging
your abilities to work individually by extensive reading and applying your
knowledge to a given client solution;
(5) Writing
down areas of the work product that need a review during the collaborative
phase of the day;
(6) Scheduling
those reviews such that the time spent is optimised without impairing the
manager’s schedule for his / her own tasks of the day.
DATA PRIVACY AND CONFIDENTIALITY
Quite often, firms have got into
trouble for breach of data, data leakages, confidentiality breaches and similar
violations, mostly inadvertently and something that is discovered much later in
the day. Clients have strict clauses and firms have an obligation to protect
client data as much as the firm’s own data.
How do you do it? The first
step is to sensitise team members to your data privacy and your confidentiality
policies. These would have pre-existed the current catastrophe in most firms.
For firms where these policies were not well articulated, now is the time to do
it.
The next step is to ensure that
these policies are implemented. Get the best minds in the firm to work on
these. Give them the tools they need to achieve 100% compliance to standards
such as GDPR. Encourage them to benchmark best practices from the market. Get
outside technical help as and when necessary.
Clients don’t like any of their
stuff to be discussed or leaked outside. They will sue for breaches. They will
fire your firm if it is found guilty of violation. You may end up losing an
account if motives are ascribed. This has happened in a public company in India
in 2019. There are many past instances of data breaches.
And finally, ensure that these
actions are monitored and a monthly review is undertaken to make course
corrections when needed. There are current standards in place and there will be
stricter norms prescribed; the firms need to take this very seriously.
TEAM ALIGNMENT
Getting
your teams ready and with a mindset to work from home is all about alignment.
Just like when you are forced to sit at home to prepare for an event or to run
an errand, when professionals have to sit at home and think about delivery of
work, there could be an initial mental block. That’s where the mindset to be
effective has to be upper-most. There will be challenges and this is when the
firm’s leaders, HR teams and technology champions all have to collaborate and
communicate constantly, to reassure the teams to be in alignment at all times.
A help-desk should be established to mentor and guide the team members with
answers to their questions. When team members know who to turn to for help,
half the crisis is solved.
It is the firm’s leadership’s job to
set the tone on alignment during WFH. It is the manager’s job to monitor
execution. It is the team member’s job to ensure that he gives his all to be in
alignment for achieving effective results.
REFLECT ON PAST LEARNINGS
Reflect on past learnings, on what
lies ahead and channelize available time into research.
(A) What lies ahead:
(i) Firms
will need to reorient their processes;
(ii) Setting
billing goals, with billable hours for advisory engagements;
(iii) Setting goals on completing specific audit areas for the day, along
with conducting audit steps / audit procedures as needed;
(iv) Tax teams will need to think about aspects of their engagements that
will need discussions and use online databases to good effect;
(v) Firms
will need to communicate with clients to expect disruptions in delivery and to
convey the firm’s preparedness;
(vi) How will the firm want to appear before its clients?
(vii) How can you increase your effectiveness in such a situation?
(B) Past learnings:
We
have all had our fair share of experiences with managing crises, managing
turbulent times, managing stressful clients, facing challenging times and so
on. Can we put that to good effect when we are designing our WFH days?
(a)
What does the market want?
(b)
What does the client expect?
(c)
Is the firm equipped to service the
client?
(d)
What needs to change?
(e)
What will I do to make a difference?
(f) What will my partners need to do to
achieve the results we seek?
(C) Research:
Can we self-quarantine our mind
whilst at home and focus on some interesting ideas, such as completing projects
that were long conceived but could not be finished:
(I) That
new product or new service offering?
(II) Video podcasts of strategic insights for clients?
(III) Evolving latest thinking and converting it into frameworks?
(IV) That thought leadership article?
(V) That
white paper on latest developments in your area of expertise (Vivad se
Vishwas, GST interpretations, MLI, etc.)?
But above all we must remember at all times to
stay safe, to stay healthy and to stay effective.
