FWA FUELS NEED FOR EFFECTIVE BUSINESS APPS TO TRACK REMOTE WORKPLACE PERFORMANCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- As the government works towards facilitating Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA) under the Employment Act from Jan 1 next year, it has fuelled requirements for appropriate business applications for employers and employees to remotely track tasks, performances and productivity more effectively.

Given that employees are not within sight at the work place, the need for improved tracking has become more pressing to ensure transparency for both parties.

During the two-year COVID-19 pandemic from April 2020, many employees had been working from home or places other than their offices under physical distancing rules.

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The government had also thrown in many incentives to help businesses cope with challenges arising from the pandemic, especially during the movement control order (MCO).

While employees need to possess more than self-motivation, good wi-fi connections and business tools during FWA, questions have also arisen among employers or businesses on a number of issues. They include the need to keep costs in check when providing collaborative digital tools like laptop computers and the need to have tracking applications to measure the productivity of their employees.

“We are at the time when the current generation of workforce is increasingly mobile and flexible, and the workplace comprises multi-generational types of employees with different kinds of communication preferences,” said Datuk Vimmy Yap, chairman of GoKudos Sdn Bhd, a company dealing with software applications for tracking businesses performance and workplace productivity.

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Under these circumstances, the lack of proper tracking systems or apps among small and medium scale enterprises often lead them to lag behind bigger companies as far as tracking and productivity were concerned, she said in a statement today.

GoKudos has been helping Malaysian businesses spanning multiple industries deal with workforce resistance to change, remote work policies and capabilities through the balance of technology and human touch in their apps as they have been tailored-made to suit the local business environment.

Yap revealed that the different sets of demands often posed challenges to both employers and employees but appropriate business solutions could be found for businesses to operate with less costly applications, especially those developed by local tech companies that took into account local workplace requirements and regulations.  

She said while many employers reckon that there could be potential cost increases in having to purchase tracking apps and remote digital working tools, not many know that they can avail themselves of a double tax relief of up to RM500,000 from the government’s PENJANA initiative announced in June 2020.

Employers who implement FWA from July 1, 2020 to Dec 31, 2022 will be able to apply for costs incurred from consultation fees, cost in capacity developments, cost of software and software subscriptions before the incentive period expires at the end of the year.

Yap said employers wanting to implement FWA within their organisations would require a cloud workspace management tool that would support remote working capability in a number of areas.

These include the capability to monitor employees on their performance and work progress, allocating tasks and projects on the go, capturing the timelines of tasks that need to be completed and organising the reporting system in a structured way so that employers or superiors will be able to have an overview just by logging to their business app.

Employees too will be able to demonstrate their accountability for tasks and projects done previously and besides having the flexibility to manage their current performance timeline without having to be asked about the status by employers or superiors.

“All employers and employees will only need to click on the app to know what is the latest,” said Yap.

-- BERNAMA