FRAISA Annual Report 20/21

© shutterstock.com / Billion Photos FRAISA Italia in times of Corona With new forms of communication safely through the crisis The corona crisis hit Italy particularly hard: within a few days, almost all activities within the country were shut down in spring of 2020. In order to ensure customer service, FRAISA Italia had to take extensive measures at short notice. The provision of suitable technical equipment for the employees was necessary to enable efficient working from home. The “COVID-19” working group established by the Group Execu- tive Board proved to be very helpful regarding the implemen- tation of measures. The sudden switch to the home office raised many questions. What impact will the changes have on internal communication and external business relationships? Will the transition affect employee leadership? The personal relationship is elementary for a good cooperation – now any contact with customers or colleagues had to be exclusively at a distance. Changeover to “Smart Working” was well prepared But FRAISA had already invested in the professional develop- ment of employees, so we were well prepared: The under- standing regarding the importance of the own function was fostered in training courses and relationship as well as man- agement skills were further developed. The workstations pro- vided for the residence of the employees enabled the contin- uation of the business activity and the communication among colleagues. Video conferencing was increasingly used for communication in order to continue working on projects together with cus- tomers and colleagues from other international branches. Ad- vantages such as the elimination of travel time and the saving of resources were quickly apparent. All this enabled us to mit- igate the decline in sales and optimize the costs of manage- ment, so that despite everything we were able to achieve a positive result in the past financial year. The pandemic gave us a reason to rethink new forms of com- munication: Through the increased use of teleworking and video conferencing systems, we now have the opportunity to better network different areas of the company worldwide and enable easier communication, also with our customers. “Smart Working” will remain an alternative solution to the usual forms of work in the future at FRAISA Italia – but also throughout the Group – and will support us in achieving our ambitious corporate goals. ANNUAL REPORT 2020/2021 I PROJECTS [ 29 ]