Contributed by Ms Susan Lai, Corporate Resources & IT Department, SCAOKL

 

Since the day we decided to relocate to new office, we did not expect to face one of the biggest challenges in the 21st century – the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

We had always wanted to improve our workstyle and working environment. Hence, in January 2020, we implemented staggered working hours (SWH) to provide flexibility to our staff for a work-life balance and family commitment. Simultaneously, we revised our official business and lunch hours for staff to avoid traffic congestion during peak hours and lunch crowd. During this time, the first wave of COVID-19 cases began in Malaysia and by March 2020, several local clusters had emerged. Left with no choice, the government imposed a full lockdown called Movement Control Order (MCO) on 18 March 2020. The MCO was extended and relaxed to different phases in 2020 and 2021.

 

Nevertheless, life must go on. We launched our business continuity plan and thanks to technology, we could work remotely from home.

 

When the MCO was relaxed in June 2020 and adhering to the government SOPs, we returned to office and started the relocation project in full swing. We had to work fast because we never knew when another lockdown would strike again.

 

With 15 voluntary national staff, we setup a taskforce called Workstyle Innovation (WSI) with 4 sub-teams – Business Process Reengineering, IT Facility, Office Location & Layout and Working Style. This taskforce (oversaw by 2 advisors) embraced diversity and inclusion (D&I) as its members were of different ethnicity, gender, age, ranking and nationality. Incidentally many of the members were also D&I taskforce members. We even got all other staff to voice their opinions in a survey.

 

The goals of WSI are to continue our business activity flexibly even in disaster case; to allow us to work more creatively and healthy; and to enable our organisation to achieve higher performance with less costs and higher efficiency.

 

Since no one could foresee how long the pandemic would last, we revamped the SWH to flexi-working hours (FWH) and introduced work from home (WFH); subsequently combined with working in office (WIO). This hybrid working model is our new normal. We also revised our dress code to casual smart on any days except on days when there are official meetings with business partners.

 

Going paperless was one of the early initiatives that we embarked on. This initiative indirectly promoted the use of Online Approval System and cloud Box as storage space (both which are effective for remote working) and instigated a ripple effect in costs reduction due to less paper, less printing, less physical storage space, smaller office space and lower rental, and even reduced the number of multi-function printers and rental. Meanwhile, Box was loaded with files and had to be restructured for easy search and access.

 

Simultaneously, we had numerous meetings (including site visits to potential offices) with external and internal parties involved in the relocation. Documentations were on-going too. After 16 months, on 1 October 2021, finally our new office is open which coincided with the organisation restructure and rename of Sumur Cahaya Sdn Bhd to Sumitomo Corporation Malaysia Sdn Bhd.

Face & temperature scan device before entrance

The concept of our new office is “Simple and Smart”. “Simple” that it is an open plan concept that offers seamless flow and connection between spaces. It also offers seamless transition of space – the flexibility to expand or change the usage of space by relocating furniture. But when we need privacy, we have the collapsible glass wall to separate the hot-desking area from the social space as well as meeting rooms and others. Most areas are coloured white which gives the illusion of spacious, bright and clean, complementing the natural light shining through the surrounding ceiling-to-floor window. To give it a soothing environment, there are some traces of colour too. “Smart” that we have a wireless environment including no fixed desk phone, cloud-based storage, a system that identifies faces and scans temperature ensuring contactless and security in office access, virtual meetings with staff working from home so that they will not feel isolated, among others.

We can choose the best area to work – hot-desking, functional pantry, concentrated space, relaxing bench area, working counter, phone booth, meeting rooms, lounge area, collaborative and creative zones – all these are to fit our style and mood for the day and create a better working environment where communication, information sharing, participation and engagement can happen easily, thus, generating new ideas, promoting unity of staff and sustainable growth. We can also choose the best posture with different types of ergonomic seats and height-adjustable desks that are available which are less stressful to our body and be healthy.

 

Indeed, it was an excitingly long journey which we walked with gusto and the outcome makes it worthwhile. But it does not end here as we continuously embrace D&I and seek new ideas to improve our workstyle, environment and performance.