The New Era of Home Office During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Currently the whole world is having to come to terms with the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has not only had an impact on economies and businesses, but also on approaches to work.
As with many other companies, this situation also has forced us to change our own work models. From the outset, we made a very quick decision to change our work style from office to remote mode. We had to react quickly to reduce any healthy risks and to help working parents to adapt to the situation; particularly when the government made a decision to close all schools, kindergartens and nurseries.
I am aware that now LinkedIn is full of articles, comments and reflections on the current situation – how to deal with online recruitment, online onboarding or managing people: and it’s great to have a lot of sources from which we can derive knowledge on how to handle all of these processes in the new reality whilst working from home during COVID-19.
Besides having all of these great resources, in this short article I want to show how we as a company have been managing this situation from a HR perspective.
How it all looked before
Yieldbird began as a startup more than ten years ago. Since then a lot has changed in our company, but one thing has remained a constant – we want to be truly transparent in all our actions and activities. Not only in our work with Publishers but also with regard to our employees and future candidates.
The home office is not something new in our company. Like all great companies, we endeavour to ensure that our employees have a workplace that is sufficient to their needs. One such need is the possibility of working remotely from time to time. We have a policy that every employee can work remotely 3 days a month, whereas the Data Scientist team can work remotely 8 days a month.
That’s why we are all familiar with organizing our workday being in a remote mode and not losing contact with others. It has always been something natural that during meetings at least one of the participants was working from home and still contributing to the meeting in an online way. What is more, we are always open to online communications with clients or candidates.
It’s obvious that in “normal” situations working from home has another purpose than it has now. We have always treated this option as something additional to our general way of working; and useful in situations when we have to focus better on tasks, or when we are simply in need of extra time at home.
How Home Office during COVID-19 looks now
Till now, remote work has looked a little bit like a vision of vacationing from the office – we could decide on location, surroundings and preparation.
But how to cope in this new reality where all business has to be business as usual?
At this point, I must mention just how much we owe to the attitudes and approaches of our employees. They fully understand the situation – and I believe everyone feels that all decisions made were guided by a concern for their safety.
While switching to a mode where whole meetings take place in an online space, it has been important to maintain a semblance of normal work culture.
An important part of coming to a physical workplace is informal interaction, which largely builds the core of the organization, its identity and community. The remote model makes such interactions quite difficult. But it is worth organizing them in a way that achieves this sense of identity and community.
One initiative proposed by one of our co-workers has been to establish virtual coffee breaks. It’s been a great success, and our employees have found these coffee meets a rewarding experience.
From our HR side, we came up with a new updated manual on how to prepare for working from home, with some new ideas about how to replace typical chitchat next to the coffee machine. Besides virtual coffee, we offer “virtual lunch” and “virtual walks” – of course we still remember to maintain all safety aspects, but one-to-one meetings can be conducted via mobile phone while leaving the home so as to enjoy some sun and fresh air.
Also, despite the home office mode during COVID-19, we have managed to carry out our quarter summary. And I have to say, it was one of the best work activities I have ever been a part of. And we then placed our traditional quarter integration in the remote mode by preparing a number of thematic rooms on zoom.
We also have to mention the invaluable assistance of AskHenry.pl. On a daily basis we have continued to work with AskHenry as an extra benefit for our employees, and they are helping us to save time on everyday tasks such as paperwork and collecting signatures on documents, particularly in some cases when we are not able to do this by way of Adobe Sign. Always mindful of safety policies, they have supported us at every turn.
What the near future looks like is anyone’s guess, but…
Our work culture has prepared us both for working in this new reality and adapting to the situation when the entire company is working from home druing COVID-19. People are the most important assets of any company, and I am proud to say that we have a great team that remains at the core of our business.
During hard times like these, the most important thing is to be there for others, to support each other and to be straightforward in communication. I believe that keeping to these few principles will allow us to remain a strong team no matter what the future may hold.
HR Specialist
