How we at Benefitax manage to continue working with high quality, punctuality and motivation despite of the coronavirus
Germany and many other countries are currently affected by a pandemic. This has consequences for companies and private individuals. At Benefitax, we care about the health of our employees. At the same time, we are concerned that our clients can continue to expect the usual quality and punctuality of our services. This article is intended to show how we at Benefitax deal with Corona.
The turnover of the tax consulting industry is currently only slightly affected by the pandemic. This is also the case with us, and we are working without restrictions, such as short-time work program, even during the crisis. All work is done as usual and submitted to the tax office on time. In the case when the legislator has extended deadlines, our clients benefit from this. We have also sent out a lot of information about tax and financial aid for companies affected by Corona.
Applied Hygiene Concept
In order to protect our employees, we have been following a comprehensive hygiene and clearance concept since the beginning of the crisis. From the very beginning, instructions for protection and prevention were attached, disinfectants were provided and the seating was rearranged so that the minimum distance of 1.50 m to the seat neighbor was maintained.
With the third regulation amending the SARS-CoV-2 Occupational Health and Safety Regulation dated 21.04.2021, we as an employer will offer testing at least twice per calendar week from 23.04.2021 for all employees who do not work exclusively from home office. Anyone who has any symptoms of Covid or returns from a risk area will not be allowed to enter the office and will be required to be tested. Only after presenting a negative test may he or she return to the office.
Benefitax’s everyday working life in times of pandemic
As the crisis worsened and the measures recommended or ordered by politicians were implemented, we also made further progress. There are no more client meetings that take place in our office, but all communication happens by phone, via email or online. We also no longer travel to our clients for personal meetings. All training courses are now only completed online. In addition, internal meetings are also generally held online. Should it nevertheless be necessary for training or coordination purposes to meet with several employees in one room while observing the rules of distance, one of the air filter units with HEPA filter purchased for this purpose will be used and the room will be regularly ventilated.
IT access for working from the home office has been set up for all employees. We offer every employee the opportunity to work from the home office. Employees are obliged to accept the home office possibility provided that there are no reasons on their part to the contrary.
We hold a weekly team meeting online with all employees. This method was chosen in consultation with the staff to ensure regular exchange among them. We provide medical surgical or FFP2 masks free of charge to employees who come to the office.
We have already adopted a “Benefitax GmbH Data Protection Guideline for Home Work (“Home Office”)” at the beginning of 2020, which ensures that unauthorized third parties cannot gain access to confidential data.
Progressive digitalization – despite of and because of Corona
The digitalization of our work, which was planned for 2020 anyway, was somewhat accelerated by Corona. As a result, we now work largely paperless. This has been achieved by the audit-proof storage of documents in a document management system (DMS) and individual process documentation for replacement scanning. Clients provide us with scanned documents and contracts for processing almost exclusively. Anyone who still sends us paper receipts will receive them back after processing, without us making paper copies of them. In this way we contribute to less paper consumption and to climate protection. Clients receive online access to their receipts and evaluations via DATEV’s “Unternehmen Online”. We also offer digital payroll accounting via “DATEV Arbeitnehmer Online”. For clients who also want to change over and become paperless, we offer support in creating their own procedural documentation to replace scanning and our IT service provider in selecting a suitable document management system.
Stay healthy. You can count on us as a reliable partner for tax and accounting issues, even in a pandemic.
