{"id":401085,"date":"2020-05-24T09:01:04","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T07:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=401085"},"modified":"2020-05-24T16:29:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T14:29:25","slug":"south-african-banks-prepare-to-keep-employees-at-home-even-as-restrictions-ease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/401085\/south-african-banks-prepare-to-keep-employees-at-home-even-as-restrictions-ease\/","title":{"rendered":"South African banks prepare to keep employees at home – even as restrictions ease"},"content":{"rendered":"

Investec chief executive officer Fani Titi saw a sign of things to come when he dropped by the bank\u2019s headquarters last week.<\/p>\n

The usually buzzing escalators that criss-cross the four-story building in Sandton, South Africa\u2019s business capital, were eerily silent. He was one of only 440 employees in an office block normally occupied by 10 times that number.<\/p>\n

Two months after shutting down the economy to contain the spread of the coronavirus, South Africa\u2019s government is preparing to ease restrictions that will enable more workers to return to their jobs.<\/p>\n

As manufacturers, miners and industries prepare their factories and offices to receive their employees, banks have found there\u2019s no need to immediately go back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have established that we can work very effectively from outside of the building,\u201d Titi said in an interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the fourth quarter of the year we may see an increase. But I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll ever get back to a situation where you will have approximately 95% of your people in one place.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Cyril Ramaphosa has pledged to allow millions more people to go back to work by the end of May, a month after he began relaxing one of the world\u2019s strictest lockdowns to revive a rapidly shrinking economy.<\/p>\n

Business leaders have warned that unless he moves quickly, four million could lose their jobs.<\/p>\n

Much of Ramaphosa\u2019s plan hinges on what regulations his administration puts in place, at a time when it\u2019s come under criticism for some of rules that have been labelled baffling<\/a>\u00a0and nonsensical.<\/p>\n

Legislators are grappling with the plans just as the country goes into winter, when models suggest Covid-19 most easily spreads.<\/p>\n

The need to reopen is urgent for manufacturers like glass-maker Consol Glass Pty Ltd.<\/p>\n

It warned last week the industry faces collapse because of lockdown regulations that ban the sale of alcohol, which accounts for 85% of the country\u2019s biggest producer\u2019s sales.<\/p>\n

Drink, Drugs<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 76-year-old firm is fully stocked to start supplying customers as soon people can buy beer, wine and spirits again.<\/p>\n

Moving stock would also enable Consol to keep its furnaces open – shutting them down would mean a six-to-eight month wait to restart and require international expertise to fire them up again.<\/p>\n

Other businesses like Africa\u2019s biggest drugmaker, Aspen Pharmacare Holdings Ltd, have been allowed to keep plants open during the shutdown, but their sea-facing head office in the resort South African town of Umhlanga is empty.<\/p>\n

As the nation eases restrictions, Aspen will see whether it will have to close factories completely should anyone catch Covid-19.<\/p>\n

That contrasts with its European operations, where the the company doesn\u2019t have to shut facilities if an employee is infected.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow government asks us to manage those challenges is key,\u201d CEO Stephen Saad said. \u201cHopefully we get pragmatic solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Retailers have already taken steps to keep staff and customers safe, such as using signs to warn customers they aren\u2019t allowed to enter shops without masks.<\/p>\n

Social distancing is enforced by allowing only every second cashier to operate, and areas are demarcated where people should stand when queuing.<\/p>\n

Stores will face challenges when regulations are relaxed, said Graham O\u2019Connor, CEO of grocer Spar Group Ltd.<\/p>\n

Hot Meals<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI am nervous about the opening of liquor, cigarette and hot-meal sales because of the crowds that will come, but we are planning accordingly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stores have been deep-cleaned, we have sanitizer as you go in and our staff have the right equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

State-owned power utility Eskom Holdings, deemed an essential service, has had more than a third of its staff working at facilities since the lockdown started on March 27.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe environment in which they work gets disinfected and deep-cleaned regularly,\u201d Eskom said in an email. \u201cThis will not change post the lockdown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Banks were allowed to keep branches open throughout the lockdown. Like Investec, rivals including Nedbank Group, Absa Group and FirstRand Ltd all expect to keep most staff home when restrictions ease.<\/p>\n

Standard Bank Group\u2019s offices in downtown Johannesburg, which typically holds 16,000, only has 3,000 essential workers on site.<\/p>\n

To smooth the transition to working remotely, Investec introduced virtual Friday night get-togethers.<\/p>\n

One session was joined by a celebrity soccer player, and another involved a team member playing guitar and a harmonica as others sipped whiskey.<\/p>\n

Still, the change has come with challenges, Investec\u2019s CEO said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe psychological toll on people has been significant,\u201d Titi said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of being locked in a room at home without contact with people and without the kind of interaction that Investec naturally is prone to has been a difficult experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Read: Draft regulations show what could be allowed under South Africa\u2019s level 3 lockdown: report<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Investec Chief Executive Officer Fani Titi saw a sign of things to come when he dropped by the bank\u2019s headquarters last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":373622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[29,1164,4088,26,1498,1799,499],"class_list":["post-401085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-eskom","tag-firstrand","tag-headline","tag-investec","tag-nedbank","tag-standard-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401085"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401085\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":401107,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401085\/revisions\/401107"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}