Accenture to extend home working in Italy beyond COVID emergency

Accenture's 17,000 Italy-based workers will be able to work remotely three days a week, up from two pre-pandemic, it said in a statement, rising to five in case of special health needs.

Reuters

January 18, 2021 / 21:02 IST

Representative image

Consulting and outsourcing services provider Accenture Plc said on Monday it would extend home working for its employees in Italy beyond the coronavirus emergency.

The pandemic has caused a rapid shift in working habits worldwide, with many major companies repeatedly extending the home working policies put in place last year as infections show no sign of abating and both workers and employers experience benefits.

Accenture's 17,000 Italy-based workers will be able to work remotely three days a week, up from two pre-pandemic, it said in a statement, rising to five in case of special health needs.

Currently 98% of its workforce is working from home, although staff have been able to do so to some degree since 2009, the group added.

"For years we've been moving towards a more elastic and digital business environment and these past months have shown us how (this) can become a new standard," Head of Human Resources in Italy Anna Nozza said.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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