In the midst of the coronavirus crisis and subjected to confinement as a measure to stop the pandemic, the Blues Simon Group is shoulder-to-shoulder and joins the list of companies that have opted for teleworking, as a formula to continue developing our activity. Although it may seem paradoxical that a Company in the Construction sector teleworking, it is possible. The key has been the anticipation.

Although it is obvious that a fundamental part of our business, such as the works in the sites, is stopped, there are many more departments in our organization whose functioning has not stopped, allowing the Blues Simon Group “spacecraft” to continue sailing in these times of preoccupation/anxiety.

We refer to areas of the company as essential as the Budget Department since, although there is still uncertainty about when the activity will be re-established, we have clients who are waiting for their budgets, in order to be able to carry out the due considerations and, in this way, continue closing agreements.

We also talk about the entire Administrative Department, from which invoices are issued, providers are attended and also the rest of the Administration’s internal operations are managed. We even refer to the Sales Department, capable of maintaining and closing operations with the help of the new technologies, such as videoconferences.

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Progressive jump/transition

Unfortunately, crisis has caught many companies on the wrong foot that, once confined, have not had much reaction capacity to adapt to the new reality that it is our lot  to live. This has not been the case of the Blues Simon Group, which has long been committed to teleworking as a measure to contribute to conciliation, with very positive results in aspects such as productivity.

This anticipation has given us a magnificent opportunity to polish details, to improve initial approaches and overcome obstacles that could ruin teleworking. After all, in a sector like ours it is necessary to access a lot of information, with files that are sometimes very heavy, such as the AutoCAD architecture plans, many 3D images, etc.

For this reason, it is not possible to embrace a teleworking strategy overnight. This is a progressive measure that requires adapting the company’s computing and telecommunications infrastructure. Among other issues is prioritizing the security, because if cybercriminals know how to do something very well, it is to access corporate networks through employees’ laptops. So this is one of the aspects not to be neglected, creating a safe working environment.

Corporate culture

At the same time, it is necessary to establish a business culture of teleworking, something that is not spontaneously achieved either. The processes, some ways of working undergo modifications to be readjusted to this new environment. We cannot ignore that in a business like ours many actors intervene, from engineers to architects, through technicians, suppliers, clients, contractors … all this multiplied by the number of projects that are currently undertaken.

Therefore, today more than ever internal communication is important, establishing the channels for this in advance and, with the help of departments such as Human Resources (HR), making sure that all staff knows what place they have in this remote puzzle.

Despite the complexity, we have not only succeeded, but we plan to continue advancing in our digital transformation process and for this year we can already speak of a drastic reduction in the use of paper in all processes, bordering the 100% of working “paperless” in the office.

Jumping into teleworking without doing these “home-works” before would have been very difficult. Thanks to all this, not only does the Blues Simon Group remain at the foot of the canyon, but it does so with the tranquillity that has “set above/before” the whole big family that compose it, always placing people on first place, without whom we would have No reason to exist.