Just over a year ago, we made the announcement that both Cape Town and Johannesburg offices would close, and a fully remote-working environment would be embraced. One year on, we look back at what we’ve learned from the change and how it led us to be the fastest-growing ISP in South Africa.
Transitioning from an in-office to a remote working environment was a challenging move for most businesses during Covid, and at Webafrica it was no different after the decision to stay remote permanently. “Change is difficult at the best of times. As a company, we underwent one of the biggest changes of all. It would greatly affect our company culture, our staff and overall, how the operation would function,” Stacey Agiakatsikas, Webafrica Head of Human Resources, says of the move to fully remote work.
“The biggest challenge we faced as a business was ensuring that we retained a strong, people-centric, and social company culture while maintaining our high levels of productivity,” Sean Nourse, Webafrica CEO, noted on the transition. It is these elements that the new strategy strives to balance along with promoting staff wellbeing.
We launched a wellness campaign where all Webafricans can learn more about mental health via online workshops. Staff also have free access to therapists via the online platform, Ollie Health, and free live online yoga sessions three times a week. Social events are available throughout the year in various cities across South Africa to bring staff together and meet in person.
For those staff members who prefer working in an office, we have partnered with Workshop17 to provide free access to their several locations in the country. All staff members are equipped with all the necessary tools to work effectively, regardless of where we want to call their office. This even includes UPS units to keep productivity at a high without interruption from loadshedding.
“Remote work has allowed us to recruit candidates from across the country. As our Fibre footprint grows, it enables us to grow our recruitment footprint which is a very exciting prospect,” Nourse says. Over 120 new staff members have been employed since the permanent remote working policy started in May 2022.
“The overall message here is that we trust our staff to work to the best of their abilities while working from anywhere we choose. This all comes with a promise from Webafrica that Webafricans’ wellbeing is always front of mind,” Agiakatsikas says.
Going fully remote might’ve been hard at the beginning, but we keep striving to keep South Africans connected with fast, affordable internet whilst taking care of the heart of the business – the staff.
Agiakatsikas continues, “A year on and we have managed to break through the limiting barriers of an office, and we have truly moved to a fully remote environment that affords our staff the autonomy to work most comfortably for them. Which means we will be at our happiest, doing what we love doing.”
In this case, a change was as good as a holiday…
