Covid-19 accelerated the digital transformation of Porto's companies
05 Jan 2021
The report carried out by Porto. for Talent, part of the investment attraction office InvestPorto, was prepared last December and follows a first study, launched in June 2020, which concluded that most companies located in the city kept their investment plans, even in a crisis scenario.
This time, it was intended to examine how companies and professionals have adapted to a new reality of work imposed by the pandemic. The questionnaire, developed in two parts, covered a total of 100 companies and their employees, and focused on three main areas: "Remote work and Covid 19: Changes and adaptation", "Impacts of remote work" and "Perspectives".
The conclusions of the study "Impact of Covid-19 on work and on the digital transformation process" point, unequivocally, to a set of changes in organizations with long-term repercussions.
Not only do the vast majority of companies (80%) consider that Covid-19 accelerated the digital transformation process, but almost all companies (90%) say that the possibility of remote work is valued by workers, as well as that adapting to remote work was faster and easier than expected.
And, the talent's adherence to this type of work is total: 100% of professionals value the possibility of working remotely and believe that adapting to remote work was easier than expected.
These conclusions reinforce the data revealed by the first study, which concluded that 8 out of 10 strategic companies for the economic development of Porto adopted the remote work regime, with adherence to this modality being greater among large companies.
Regarding the impacts of teleworking, companies and professionals are aligned in terms of their residual influence on productivity and collaboration, and teamwork, considering that remote work has not had negative effects at these levels.
Although almost all respondents are convinced that distance work will continue to mark the lives of organizations, most of them say that work can never be, or do not think it is convenient, totally remote.
On the other hand, the vast majority of companies and workers believe that the new models of work organization will, in the near future, lead to the need for new skills, assigning in this context an important role to emotional and social skills.
It is also clear the sign of confidence of the organizations, which also corroborates the data presented in the first survey. The vast majority of companies (84%) do not consider closing offices or workspaces in Porto, nor do they foresee (94%) moving to another city or region.
