Offices switch to home work
MANY Far North workers return to their offices on Monday after a Christmas break but they face upheaval as an increasing number of businesses shift to working from home.
Advance Cairns chief executive Paul Sparshott said although the state government recommended people work from home where possible, it depended on the nature of the business.
“From a business industry organisation (perspective), businesses still need to conduct business,” he said.
“For some businesses, they can work remotely, but others might need people there.
“If they do work in an office, can you do it safely? And can you reduce the risks? If you can’t work remotely, you need to come up with ways you could work safely.”
Mr Sparshott said one option for Cairns businesses would be a hybrid model.
“You should assess the workplace then stagger people so they are not all coming in at once,” he said.
“There are a lot of benefits to coming in together in the workplace if it is safe to do so.”
But Mr Sparshott said it was important to communicate with staff first and get their opinion.
“Have discussions with staff, assess whether it’s safe to do so and can you have hybrid solutions? It really depends,” he said.
Halpin Partners Accountants managing director Darren Halpin said when the firm opened from Monday, they would move back to their Covid protocols, which meant working from home.
“Our office is set up so we can all work remotely – everybody apart from the admin team can – so we will have a skeleton crew in the office,” he said.
“It’s just easier; if you have Covid in the office, it complicates the whole process of work, with clients coming in.”
But he said working from home wasn’t a bad thing.
“We found people were more efficient working from home,” he said. “We were more productive, (had) less interruptions and clients weren’t ringing us as much so we could get our work done. “
But while many office staff can work from home, bars, restaurants and takeaway shops have been hard hit by staff absences.
Joes Pizza owner Shayne Gilmore said the Edmonton outlet had to cancel deliveries to Gordonvale until further notice due to driver shortages and were encouraging people to pick up their orders.
“To keep the business running, we’ve just had to cut the Gordonvale deliveries,” he said. “We’ve shut our Menulog down and our DoorDash sites down for the moment so we can take control of where our deliveries are going.”
But Mr Gilmore said it was a tough decision to make.
“We have been in business for 10 years – it’s pretty hard to feel like you’ve cut your business in half by doing that overnight,” he said. “We are trying not to shut down. We could’ve but we haven’t.”