This is how we keep the Morale Up During the Pandemic, what about you?

Novel CoronaVirus has disrupted and rearranged the workplace across the globe with breathtaking speed. In a week’s time, organizations across the world have sent millions of employees home, to work remotely. Without any preparation, managers have been thrust into the position of leading virtual teams, many for the first time. Facing a new complex reality, many businesses have struggled to respond quickly and practically without affecting employee morale.

An unprecedented situation.

In the new normal, our organization had to drastically shift to a new lifestyle as quickly as possible.
The major challenge was to balance individual needs, an effective working environment, and collaboration requirements when getting ready for the new normal. One of the most observable changes which occurred as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic has been the shift of employees from office to work from home arrangements. We teamed up and started taking appropriate steps to bring some calm to an anxious workforce, boost morale, and improve productivity.

#1 We Celebrate accomplishments and milestones
We never stopped celebrating employee wins. Employee wins could be someone’s work anniversary, an appreciation from a client, or a personal accomplishment. We appreciate their effort for what they accomplished together as a team, despite the challenges of working during the health threat. This not only helps to boost employee morale but also increases a sense of connectivity, as people are physically distant.

#2 Improved access to resources
In order to maintain a good employee experience and keep up employee morale, we have ensured that our employees have the proper resources to work efficiently. We have sent their machines home, ensured the quality of internet connectivity, and provided inverters for a few of them. This has helped them to set up a comfortable remote working environment with ease.

EPMS, a digital workplace and project management software platform was developed in house, which helped us a lot for an incessant smooth operation. It has everything built into it for project management, time tracking, scrum board, HR activities, and more.

#3 Virtual Recruiting
We switched from hands-on to computerized hiring, onboarding, and performance management during the crisis. We successfully onboarded new recruits. Yes, we keep on moving the recruiting funnel even during this uncertain time.

#4 Virtual Bonding Activities
We hold 30-minute calls with the entire team, 3 days a week. Fun-filled games and interesting conversations were included to make these calls an ideal way to keep everyone connected. At times, we make use of this time to share and discuss tech topics. We give turns to everyone to host the meeting.

We have set up a fun club and the coordinators come up with interesting trivia games, contests, and activities to keep the team engaged. We ushered our workforces into a COVID-19 world of telework, virtual meetings, and contests, that really helped to improve employee morale.

#5 We Brush Up And Stay Sharp On Our Skills
We believe Coronavirus-induced remote work is a great time to brush up on various proficiencies, and if failed, it could be detrimental for both employees and the company. We designed training modules for each department. Every employee was assigned a training module, for better learning and to keep motivated.
The employees receive their training in live and recorded video, virtual, and other distance-learning methods. We have also set up checkpoints and quality guidelines for each technology/department.
Thus, we made sure the basics are clear for everyone and it will definitely help them in keeping the quality and standards the same for all developers.

Wrap Up
Maintaining high employee morale is certainly challenging during this trying time, but we have proved that it’s not impossible to achieve. We can see that our team is able to handle the virtual working process. At the same time, we see that the productivity, performance, throughput of work has significantly increased. It’s these little things like proper communication, appreciations, access to resources, that shows we’re in this together.

Going forward into an uncertain future we believe a disciplined routine coupled with strong mental and physical well-being can make work from home an enjoyable experience.