Omicron to disrupt the employees' return-to-office plans

The coronavirus pandemic has sped up a transition into more flexible and diverse working hours around the world, opening up ways of working that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Now with the growing concerns of Omicron variant of the virus, companies are struggling to understand how the variant is going to impact the employees to start travelling to office and they are reviewing to consider different permanent work models for their employees as the coronavirus pandemic, and the spread of the Omicron variant, destabilize their latest return-to-office plans. Countries moved swiftly this week to impose bans or tougher testing rules on travel after the Omicron variant was first uncovered in southern Africa.

The World Health Organization said as more countries reported cases, the new COVID-19 variant carries a "very high" global risk of surges. Scientists have said it could take weeks to understand its severity, although early indications were that most cases were mild. The prospect of a fast-spreading variant has raised fears of a return of the sort of restrictions that shut down a swath of industries in 2020. Alphabet Inc's Google was indefinitely delaying its return-to-office plan around the world. Google in August had said it would expect workers to come in about three days a week from Jan’ 10 at the earliest, ending its voluntary work-from-home policy. Google was one of the first companies to ask its employees to work from home during the pandemic. It has about 85 offices across nearly 60 countries.

COVID has accelerated digitization of all aspects of business and life. Enterprises have learnt to work remotely and increased their use of tech, and people have learnt to consume everything digitally, even sectors like education, healthcare, and of course financial and work transactions. At the same time there is serious concern on the worsened problems that have long existed within the Doctors and nursing profession – in particular, widespread stress and burnout, health and safety issues, depression and work-related post-traumatic stress disorder, and even increased risk of suicide.

Doctors and nurses are leaving the medical field at a faster rate than are replaced, which is leading to further strain on our healthcare system. Now the question is how can our remaining healthcare professionals be supported and be allowed more face-to-face time with their patients? Secondly, how can paperwork be removed from these healthcare professionals’ dockets in order for them to not only provide better care, but allow them to maintain a better work/life balance? With this there will be a growing issue of physician shortage in our healthcare system and the ways in which it can be addressed.

Deepak Sahu, President & CEO, VARINDIA