3 minute read
Maria Nakamura of Arcc
Coping with COVID-19 crisis
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The global building and construction industry has also been hit by the outbreak of COVID-19. Delays in construction projects and labour shortages are some of the many challenges that building and construction professionals are facing right now. At the heart of these challenges is addressing the safety of their staff and clients as well as ensuring that business continues with minimal disruption. In this issue, architects, engineers and designers tell us how they are responding to the COVID-19 situation and what kind of impact will it leave on their business and on the architecture industry as a whole.
Yang San Go, Managing Director, Aurecon Singapore
Your firm’s response to COVID-19
In addition to implementing business continuity measures, Aurecon’s global Executive Leadership Team now meets three times a week to co-ordinate our response to on-going developments. We also communicate daily with our company Medical Director at International SOS and monitor advice from local authorities. The latest advice on health hygiene and other developments is communicated to all staff once a week and we maintain a COVID-19 resource hub on the company Intranet, which is accessible to all staff.
In addition, we recognise that the situation may cause some to feel anxiety. They are referred to our employee assistance programme, which offers free, confidential and professional counselling service to all employees and their immediate family members.
In Singapore, our crisis response team, which includes Senior Management, Legal, Health and Safety, HR and Communications, meets at least twice a week to monitor the situation and implement the necessary measures to ensure that our employees remain healthy and safe with minimal disruptions to our clients and projects.
Changes in office working patterns
In Singapore, we have implemented split teams and other flexible working arrangements. Social distancing has been put in place for those working in the office. We have business continuity plans in place and this includes enabling our offices around the world with additional IT tools so that they are able to support each other, in the event of a temporary closure. Yang San Go. Photo: © Aurecon
Impact of COVID-19 on your business and the architecture, engineering and construction industry as a whole
The biggest impact to the engineering and construction industry is project delays due to shortage of construction materials and workers from China and Malaysia. Some clients have also put on hold certain non-critical projects and this will eventually have a knock-on effect on our business in terms of opportunities, operations and cashflow.
Lambert Ma, Director, LWK + PARTNERS
Your firm’s response to COVID-19
Our firm’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been phased due to the constantly evolving nature of the situation. Flexibility is key to our approach by which we have adopted remote office in the first instance followed by flexi-hour work arrangement when the situation has become less volatile. Being a global practice, the timing and level of implementation vary from office to office depending on the office locale. But overall as a practice we have suspended business travels and encouraged using video conference as the prime means of communication with clients and collaborators in lieu of face to face meetings. We understand this is uncertain and anxious time for many people, it is therefore important to communicate and listen to the feedback and concerns of our staff in our response to the pandemic. It is also our duty as a practice to stay educated and proactive in implementing health and safety measures for the wellbeing of our staff in the workplace.
Changes in office working patterns
The call for social distancing as a means to hamper the spread of viral infections has affected how and where we work in response. Remote access and communication
Lambert Ma. Photo: © LWK + PARTNERS
