Careem to let staff work remotely

Work-from-home strategy has worked well for super app

LAHORE:

The impact of lockdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has started changing business practices for many companies permanently and new models are being incorporated to create a win-win situation for both - owners and employees.

A recent move in this regard has been announced by Careem, a super app for Middle East, when its Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder Mudassir Sheikha announced that it would be the first remote company as its 1,190 employees out of the total of 1,314 will have the freedom to work remotely.

In an interview with The Express Tribune, Sheikha said initially the strategy was “imposed on us and other businesses as well due to sudden lockdowns to contain the spread of Covid-19, but it worked positively for the company.”

“We observed better performance in our business due to the remote work strategy and our results for the first and second quarters of 2020 were better than expected,” he said.

“We later conducted some internal surveys after realising that this strategy is working in our favour and the business has not undergone any destruction,” he pointed out. “Why not implement this as a permanent strategy for our business?” he asked.

Work from home was the only strategy for nearly every business throughout the world during Covid-19. Later, debates were initiated at many forums as to whether to adopt the model permanently or not. While many corporate entities are still debating, Careem has adopted this model, which will significantly reduce its costs under different heads.

“We are not closing any of our offices, but we will redesign our workplace and this will help us in reducing our real estate cost,” the CEO revealed.

The app, which is known for its ride-hailing services, has diversified into other ventures, one of which is food delivery. However, according to Sheikha, ride-hailing services are still contributing the biggest chunk to the company’s revenues but food delivery services are also growing.

“This is due to the pandemic that our food delivery section is getting a boost, though we are still expanding in our ride-hailing services by employing more captains,” Sheikha added.

The company currently has 1.7 million captains operating the fleet globally, of which 0.5 million are in Pakistan. The company has so far invested $80 million in Pakistan with total workforce of 425 employees.

Shedding light on the challenges faced regarding the captains’ attitude and security of customers’ data, the CEO said, “When we go for a new venture, challenges emerge. Every problem that has emerged in the past about the behaviour or security issues, we took all the problems seriously, came up with solutions to overcome them; it is a continuous process.”

The work-from-home strategy too has challenges since it cannot work for every individual. “We need to invest in changing systems and working environment to change mindsets, offices and goals. We believe this model will accelerate but after coping challenges, especially in our region where infrastructure problems are greater than the developed world,” Sheikha added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2020.

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