Companies within the Gazprom Neft Group are gradually bringing employees back from working from home — a key condition for employees returning to work being a negative result in company-organised COVID-19 testing.

The ending of temporary working-from-home at Gazprom Neft Group businesses will be gradual, and handled in phases. The first stage — running to the end of June — will involve approximately half of employees going back to offices, in line with specific circumstances in individual regions, and the specific aspects of individual divisions’ activities. Employees at risk due to chronic illness, age or family responsibilities will remain working at home until the epidemiological situation returns to normal.

Access to businesses, plants and offices will be managed using digital passes, aligned with the company’s personnel health monitoring system, which blocks employees showing signs of illness, or not testing negative for COVID-19, from accessing facilities. Regular testing is provided for all employees every seven to 14 days to prevent the spread of the virus.

Company offices are fully equipped with anti-viral equipment and resources, with temperatures taken remotely on entering buildings, and workplaces supplied with anti-bacterial air recirculation system and hand sanitizers. Office space is arranged in line with 1.5-metre social distancing requirements, with employees being issued with protective masks and gloves every day. Personnel have their temperatures taken throughout the day, and premises and contact surfaces are disinfected regularly. Staggered start and finish times have been introduced in order to ensure arriving and departing employees are kept apart in morning and evening “rush hours”.

Gazprom Neft is an industrial company, with the greater part of its production being continuous — meaning the company’s enterprises do not close down, even on non-working days. A high level of digitisation and operational efficiency has allowed the company to put in place a series of “barriers ” to prevent COVID-19 spreading among its personnel, and to get through the first stage of the pandemic without any loss in productivity. Approximately 30% of the group’s employees (and 70% of administrative staff) were moved to working from home from 19 March — demanding a considerable increase in digital-infrastructure capacity.

“Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic started, Gazprom Neft has gone to considerable lengths to ensure all company employees are as safe as possible, and to put effective barriers in place against the virus spreading. At the toughest time, when the pandemic was peaking, we moved the majority of the company’s office-based employees over to remote working. Now, as the situation is starting to stabilise, we are gradually bringing employees back to the office, while ensuring full adherence to all internal health and hygiene safety — and all Rospotrebnadzor — standards. The number of employees returning to work permanently is being driven by the epidemiological situation in any given region, by production requirements, by how far it is possible to comply with restrictions on working processes, and by how far we can put various control criteria in place. We have tried to work out, in detail, every aspect necessary in ensuring a safe way back for people — from COVID-19 testing schedules and protocols for office life under the ‘new normal’ to memos, webinars and psychologist’s support for everyone coming back to the office.”

Kirill Kravchenko Deputy CEO for Administration, Gazprom Neft