ALRAQABA . ISSUE 15
29
Procedures taken at the level of the HR
Department to protect employees of the SAI:
The SAI decided to redistribute its workforce in
accordance with the general procedures adopted
in Qatar, whereby only %20 of the employees
were allowed to work at the headquarters, and the
remaining %80 were assigned to work remotely.
All employees over the age of 55 and those with
chronic diseases were required to work remotely.
Female employees of the SAI were also assigned
to work from their homes. In addition, the SAI
restricted all types of gatherings and suspended
the use of the fingerprint scanning system. Instead
of using a shared biometric fingerprint scanner,
employees were required to clock in and out by
scanning their individual work IDs. Business
hours within the SAI were reduced to one hour
per day. The SAI of Qatar has activated a hotline
for the different departments and provided a
WhatsApp Messenger service to respond to
inquiries of the employees.
Procedures taken to provide logistics and
administrative services in support of the
SAI’s work:
The SAI provides hand sanitizers in all elevators
and corridors of the SAI’s headquarters and
ensures that surfaces are disinfected every
20 minutes. In order for employees and
representatives of the companies contracting
with the SAI to enter the building, the SAI
would first check and verify their last date of
entry to the country. For the SAI’s employees
who are assigned to work remotely, they
should obtain prior approval upon entering the
building. Besides, the employees attending
the headquarters are provided with sanitizers
and face masks, and all visitors are advised to
wear masks and gloves upon entering the SAI
building. Other actions taken by the SAI in this
domain include reducing the numbers of company
workers of cleaning services along with adjusting
their work hours to start after the office hours of the
SAI’s employees. This is in addition to suspending
all hospitality services in the offices and limiting
the allowed capacity for using the elevators.
Procedures taken at the level of Information
Technology and Information System
Department
The SAI of Qatar provided laptops equipped
with email archiving software for its employees
who were assigned to work remotely. It has also
prepared a user guide for the Virtual Meeting
Software. In an effort to reduce the number
of individuals attending the SAI premises,
digital solutions were adopted to follow up on
maintenance and support services with systems
and software providers. The SAI also considered
and studied the possibility of implementing
Microsoft Azure for cloud systems, along with
purchasing and creating an e-learning platform
for the Center of Excellence for Training and
Development. Other procedures in this field
include authorizing the training center to use
Microsoft Teams, granting permission for
employees to access VPN program using the OTP
feature, preparing a VPN access report on a daily
basis, compiling records of the systems available
via VPN, and following up on security threats and
implementing the necessary protection measures.
The SAI was also keen to provide a remote access
feature for its employees to all the electronic
systems based on their defined competencies.
This access would help the employees to carry
out their assigned work using the provided
laptops while ensuring adherence to the
adopted security and safety policies of the SAI.
Besides, the employees were urged to use Cisco
Communicator to discuss work-related matters,
in addition to using other video conferencing
software, such as (Microsoft Teams and WEBEX)
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