How TES can provide vital resources to support healthcare and business during lockdown
By Theresa Ackerman, Manager of Operational Excellence at T-Systems South Africa
Temporary Employment Services (TES) or as we call it Expert on Demand, can play a key role in assisting both essential services and ordinary businesses to seamlessly continue operations by immediately providing the right resources with the appropriate skills and expertise, while also assisting businesses to rapidly roll out workforce mobility projects with project management resources.
Healthcare workers are at the frontline of battling the pandemic, but they are overworked and have virtually no spare capacity. Many nurses, doctors and other medical staff have been forced to take on the burden of administrative functions, in addition to having to treat high numbers of patients.
Easing the burden
Due to the unavailability of administrative staff, doctors are having to assist patients to fill out forms, ensure that this information is then captured and then subsequently analysed. This is in addition to providing these patients with medical care.
This is where TES can step in and take some of the stress away from medical workers and allow them to focus on providing healthcare. Many TES have qualified people available, such as data capturers, or administrative staff, that can be deployed to provide support services to frontline staff, who are our first line of defence in the fight against the pandemic.
Because many TES are providing resources and services to organisations that are essential service providers, they have essential service certificates and can mobile this temporary support staff to clinics, hospitals, or testing stations. These workers can be deployed immediately and offer a host of services, from capturing patient information to driving mobile testing units.
Helping with business continuity
TES can also play a key role in helping non-essential businesses that have had to hastily adopt mobile working strategies – virtually overnight, as the lockdown was announced with almost no prior warning. Many companies have struggled with aspects of security, devices, tools and connectivity, while still needing to deliver services in an environment where they have no face-to-face contact with clients or staff.
Hence, these organisations have found that enabling a mobile workforce with the right technology and tools is a massive task that requires the co-ordination and expertise of a project manager, who understands the business environment, as well as the technology and steps to enable a workforce that can work remotely.
Initiating, planning, executing and monitoring a work-from-home solution requires knowledge, skills, tools and techniques – which can all be drawn from project management. At the same time, many TES have project managers on their books who have experience and skills across various industries and are not working during the lockdown period.
These resources can be assigned to companies that are trying to bed down their remote working strategies and can even be used to identify and fix potential problems before they occur. This can assist companies to maximise customer satisfaction and productivity, while also ensuring the employee satisfaction by providing workers with the relevant tools to work remotely.
Because these are temporary workers, companies can employ these project managers on long or short term contracts, or use them on a time and material basis, especially as this is a cost-sensitive time when businesses are losing significant amounts of money.
From a TES perspective, this is where we can add value and make a difference to the country. Whether it is by easing the burden of frontline medical staff, or just helping companies to operate effectively during the lockdown, TES understand the needs of organisations and do their part in the fight against the pandemic.
T-Systems in South Africa:
Communications Specialist
Thamsanqa Malinga
+27(11)2547400 (Phone)
+27(0)833017878 (Mobile)
About Deutsche Telekom: https://www.telekom.com/en/company/at-a-glance
About T-Systems: T-Systems company profile
About T-Systems South Africa: TSSA Company Profile
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