Remote work has changed our mindsets on the future of work across all layers of society. Countries, public institutions, and businesses will have to address multiple challenges in preparing for the future of work, even as we identify the lessons learned from the pandemic: Dramatic job losses in transport, hospitality, entertainment, tourism; coupled with the disruption of value chains, and adoption of online modes — particularly in health, education, government and retail.
We know that investments in digital infrastructure and the development of digital capabilities have proven to be critical enablers for the successful pivot to online working, online learning, and living during the pandemic. However, the cost remains high in terms of isolation, mental health, loss of human contact; and the loss of opportunity for the billions of unconnected people.
For those lucky enough to enjoy high speed Internet connectivity, working remotely under COVID has represented a significant change: It created complexity for coordination and control, lowered motivation and morale, and destroyed social fabrics. For others, it opened the door for new opportunities, enhanced creativity, and allowed for more flexibility; what experts call smart work.
From remote work to smart work
How do we transition from remote work to smart work, enabling professional development, and excellence, while working virtually? This was at the heart of a discussion between leaders and experts from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s (KSA) eGovernment Program, Yesser; the United Nations (UN); South Korea; and the World Bank — during a recent webinar, moderated by Yesser’s Deputy CEO, Eng. Hisham Al Sheikh. The attending experts all agreed on the need to re-skill existing workforces and citizens alike, and collectively emphasized three sets of challenges that stand out between remote work and the future of smart work:
Technical challenges
Both remote work and smart work are enabled by wired and wireless networks, cybersecure networks, government clouds, and mobile identification procedures. Failure to provide these services affects the provision of services and increases the digital divide, hampering the provision of critical services to — potentially — large groups of citizens. Take, for instance, the process of registering a newborn child in 2020. In countries where digital tools are proliferated, the entire exercise is often undergone virtually. In countries that have yet to introduce online services to the public, thousands, if not millions, of children have been born without being registered at all.
Structural challenges
Remote work and smart work are embraced by employees and citizens if they are accompanied by a revision of organizational structures, of evaluation methods, of KPIs, and of reward systems. These changes do not need to be dramatic — however, the absence of even small adjustments creates resistance and often nullifies common efforts towards smart work. South Korea’s Telecommuting Act of 2010, e.g., which addressed remote work for the first time, was a game changer, especially for working mothers.
Cultural challenges
Panelists highlighted that culture is the most important element in achieving sustainable and successful change. It is also the most elusive to define and therefore the most difficult to affect. Leadership is the prime agent for cultural change. For KSA’s Ministry of Communication and Information (MCIT), project management and missions that usually took place in person, are now conducted virtually by top leaders and project owners, in order to remotely supervise progress.
It is clear that most of the developing world and many developed countries are far from meeting these challenges, and not yet at the stage to fully adopt Smart Work. In an effort to identify good practices, speakers discussed three main capabilities for a roadmap towards smart work:
Sensing capability — always be ahead of what's next
The pandemic has taught us that even a small level of early warning can make a big difference in how a country prepares and reacts to any emergent issue. For the World Bank Information Technology Services (ITS), this early warning came in January 2020 from its team located in China. The capability to sense early warnings is key to be able to act upon it: “We heard the news about the possible pandemic in January. We started to take action, activating what we call the level one response of the business continuity program. Then we expanded on monitoring and reporting to understand how serious this pandemic could be, how widespread it has been,” stated Mr. Clay Lin, Director Technology Services at the World Bank on early pandemic response.
Mobilizing capability — go beyond the creation of infrastructure
From South Korea, a clear story emerged on the importance of mobilization. More than a decade ago, the South Korea Government enacted the Telecommuting Act, enabling flexible work schedules and remote work for public servants. However, they went beyond the creation of the physical and digital infrastructure that enables smart work, such as equipping civil servants with quality laptops, and developing the relevant digital skills. While some government employees were reluctant to use this opportunity before the pandemic, the mandate to work from home enabled a rapid pivot to home-based work.
Scaling capability — digital infrastructure is both a social equalizer and economic multiplier
Speakers also pointed at the fact that a mature digital infrastructure made it easy to quickly scale up remote services without the need for additional resources. Mr. Faris AlSaqabi, Assistant Deputy Minister of the MCIT in KSA, pointed out that “digital infrastructure is both a social equalizer and economic multiplier.” In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, this meant providing 30 million telemedicine consultations and issuing 1.7 million digital prescriptions through a digital health app. For the World Bank, this meant scaling Webex sessions from 39,000 per month to 20,000 per day.
We also know that smart work increases productivity as discussed by OECD. For Ms. Deemah Al Yahya, Secretary General, Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO), this is partly due to workers’ flexibility and ownership to prioritize actions. Ms. Al Yahya focused on youth potential, and on an inclusive approach, to re-skilling youth for the unfilled digital sector jobs in all DCO countries (Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia). What about cross-border work, such as retail, transport, trade, or health? For Mr. Vincenzo Aquaro, UNDESA (Chief of Digital Government branch- DPIDG) we are far from getting to smart work. While digital technologies have a cross-border impact that favors smart work and gig work, “the access to internet and technologies as well as digital policies, regulatory framework, and digital capabilities remain diverse and fragmented.” Mr. Aquaro emphasized the role of public and private partnership to bridge the digital capabilities divide.
Therefore, to tap into the promise of smart work employing talent across countries, we require regulatory frameworks and labor codes that are compatible across borders. In order for governments to fulfill the dream of becoming an ecosystem “Government as a Platform”, as Gartner Group dubs it, they will need to develop the capability for collaboration, and inclusion, first internally and then also externally.
The webinar’s conclusions confirmed the opening words by Saudi eGovernment Program (Yesser) CEO, Eng. Ali Alasiri: This is a call to action to transform the way governments work. Investments in digital infrastructure, digital capabilities, cybersecurity and change management are direly needed. Issam Abousleiman, World Bank regional director for GCC, concluded by confirming the WB’s commitment to supporting the KSA, and all GCC countries, in their ambitious digital transformation strategies.
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