I am very proud of how the Coniq team has navigated the choppy waters of 2020. Like most businesses, COVID-19 has meant that we have had to introduce major operational changes in order to stay fully functional, competitive and most importantly, keep our customer service at the same high level as before the pandemic.
These changes, some forced upon us, have been positive for the company, as well as providing individuals with a unique growth experience.
The most obvious and far reaching, was the forced separation of the team. With a central London office, this was quite a blow.
We had previously pushed for staff to work as much as possible from the office. Oh, how this rapidly changed overnight! Infrastructurally, since we are a technology company, and our internal systems and our core offering are hosted in the cloud, we were ready. We were able to move with agility to accommodate and support 80+ staff working from home. The hard bit was the cultural change.
Our company’s NDA is rooted in personal interaction, which is natural since we specialise in creating unique customer experiences for our retail destination clients. Before the first lockdown, we relied heavily on walking around the office, having face-to-face conversations, meetings and brainstorms.
Away from the office, this is difficult at the best of times. The new set-up uncovered a challenge, which was how to run these important interactions and behaviours without losing much of the important detail that often comes from personal contact.
To address this concern, we quickly reviewed our processes. Before COVID-19, we had invested in Jira, but had not fully embraced this task tracking tool outside of our technology teams, which we have now done so across the whole company in order to digitise employee behaviour. As a result, this has led to improving the way everyone stays focused on the important work, aligned to our company’s Operational Key Objectives (OKRs). But this wasn’t enough.
Another issue that arose was the lack of quick access to general business knowledge. You couldn’t just walk over to a colleague’s desk and ask about the details of a future product. So, we looked at how we could improve the sharing and storing of information.
We introduced three improvements including a new company wiki, dedicated Slack channels and an end of week internal recap email pulled together by the senior leadership team. We continued with our Monday weekly all hands conference call that linked colleagues from around the world.
As a senior leader, I have always been a little afraid of my team working from home, with the view that productivity would be hit with the constant lure of Netflix or a warm bed. However, after seven months of working from home, this has not become an issue. Just the opposite. We have a more engaged and motivated workforce.
If there is one area that has required more attention, it’s been our staff’s wellbeing. Humans thrive on interaction and when this is taken away, it can cause problems, especially when you’re working from home – and it can be easy to work long hours.
We made a concerted effort to have fun, virtually. We introduced daily team stand ups, weekly socials and digital fitness groups, which allowed for people to watch out for each other, ensuring everyone remained sane.
These activities were mostly hosted and run organically by staff with particular interests and passions. An ancillary learning here was that social burnout is a real thing, and 18 pub quizzes, virtual bingo and safari themed socials later, we came to the conclusion that quality over quantity was the winner. We are currently awaiting to see whether a digital Christmas party lives up to the annual late night!
It’s easy to say that our ability to respond to the challenges brought on by COVID-19 were only possible from having the right tools in place. Tools did help a lot to keep the channels open with colleagues. The real reason for our success this year comes down to our people.
My colleagues were open to change, taking the initiative to suggest and lead improvements to how we engage and support each other. It’s this sense of improvement, and care for each other, that makes our company special. For this reason alone, it’s why I am excited about next year, because we are entering 2021 much stronger operationally and individually as one team.
