BTC to reduce ‘office footprint’ in New Providence
NASSAU, BAHAMAS — BTC has transitioned more than 90 percent of its operations to a work from home model that it plans to continue for rest of the year.
In a statement, the company underscored adjustments were an innovative response to the new way of working and serving its customers during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
BTC CEO Garry Sinclair said: “The safety of our employees and our customers is our number one priority. Since late January, we began to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic to determine the necessary measures that we needed to put in place to respond to this crisis.
“In early March, we conducted a trial work from home model, and since then just about all of our non-technical operations have been executed in a virtual environment, which has gone exceptionally well.”
BTC said more than 90 percent of the company’s operations have been managed within a work from home environment since March.
It noted the launch of its virtual store, e-billing and consolidated office footprint.
“BTC has made the decision to continue the work from home model for the rest of the year, enabling employees whose work can be executed from home, the flexibility to do so,” the statement read.
“The company is providing employees with free landline and broadband services to support their work from home experience. While work from home is being encouraged, the company will also reopen some of its offices to give employees the opportunity to return to the office if they so choose.
“The company has reduced its office footprint in New Providence and consolidated operations between its network hub at Poinciana and Perpall Tract compound. To support their health and safety and in particular observe safe and social distancing, a rotation system has been implemented limiting the number of employees going into the office on a daily basis.
Sinclair added: “We are remodeling our Perpall Tract facility to ensure that we have a socially distanced and state of the art workspace for those who may opt to go into the office.”
BTC said employees going into the office and working from retail stores are provided with the necessary personal protective equipment for their safety and the safety of customers.
BTC, like many companies, has instituted temperature checks at their offices and stores. Customers with higher than normal temperatures are being served through the virtual store option.
“We’ve successfully concluded over 30,000 transactions through our virtual stores within the last four and a half months and we are looking at ways to further enhance the service which we will introduce shortly,” Sinclair said.
BTC also made several enhancements to its services.
“We made a conscious decision to discontinue paper bills and have updated our billing and bill payment platform,” he said.
“Bills are now emailed and can be viewed on our MyBTC mobile app. Bill payment options have also been made easier and customers can use BTC’s Fast Pay option to make a payment.
“Customers need their account number, if they’d like to see their balance and pay their bill or simply the phone number if they only want to pay the bill. Customers who still wish to receive a paper bill can make a request.”
According to the statement, customers also have the option of contacting BTC’s call center at 225-5282 to access their bills.
