For us at Bright, the transition to ‘working from home’ has been relatively painless; we’ve been working remotely and flexibly for years. A member of our team moved to Israel (and continues to work from there) just before lockdown, so a lot of the infrastructure was already in place to enable people to log in from wherever they are in the world and do their jobs.
Having said that, there is always room for improvement. So here are my top 5 tips to ensure consistency and exclusivity while the UK’s workforce continues to WFH.
1.Lean On Your Brand Values
At Bright we’ve found that our core brand values have really come into their own during this crisis; we’re genuinely living and breathing them, which is so good to see. Two of our values are being Simply Supportive and Enjoyably Serious – meaning we love what we do but sometimes we need a little extra support. We see this as an accurate representation of our culture and we’re proud that in times of great we can remember to focus on these areas, albeit in an adapted way. It’s essential to stick to your core values and this will help to reassure your staff and route them to the business.
2. Make It Easy
It’s really important to ensure that your technology stands up to the task when you’re dealing with a remote workforce. There is nothing more frustrating for your team than being unable to work in the same way as they could from the office, whether that’s by easily being able to access shared files or data, or by logging into the systems they’re used to using every day. One of the reasons the adoption of various martech tools has exploded since the pandemic began is that marketing teams are having to grapple with doing more, often with less. And doing it remotely. The same is true of all other forms of business tech, enabling work to go on in the midst of a health crisis.
3. Team Bonding And Inclusivity Is Key
The team at Bright is pretty sociable generally and we’ve always focused on bringing a sense of fun to our company-wide activities. We passionately felt that we needed to continue these traditions during lockdown, but flex to accommodate everyone and ensure we’re being inclusive.
A lot of our traditions include food and we’ve seen no need to let coronavirus hamper that. As a result, our daily breakfast club has evolved into an open Zoom meeting, designed to give everyone the opportunity to grab a coffee and chat as they would in the office. And in the past, our monthly lunch club was a great opportunity for everyone to get together at a local restaurant. We’ve now adapted this and added a bit more flexibility for personal restaurant preferences. Our finance team sends everyone £10 and each employee pre-orders their lunch on Deliveroo or Uber Eats and then joins a Zoom meeting to eat, chat & play games.
4. Switch To Virtual Events
Where possible, try to stick to plans and events booked pre-lockdown. We had booked to speak at the B2B Marketing Expo long before the coronavirus hit and it was tempting to put all the preparations on hold. However, we made the decision to press on and managed to turn it into a webinar opportunity at relatively little cost, at a time when marketing and PR is key.
5. Keep The Friday Night Drinks Alive
And finally, our Friday drinks have long been a company staple; 4 pm strikes and the beer fridge opens. We all still meet at 4 pm on a company-wide Zoom meeting and as usual we have a theme for the topic of discussion. It could simply be to tell everyone about one thing that has gone really well that week or something that continues to be challenging. Or it could be a game of Pictionary where we encourage teams to use their (often terrible) drawing skills to outline their week.
It’s been really heart-warming to see how quickly the team have adapted to our new way of working and although we appreciate there a few elements of office life it’s hard to replicate, such as hanging around the water cooler for a chat, we are giving it our best shot!
About The Author
Victoria Heyward is head of all things Brand and Marketing at Bright. Her employment experience includes Head of Client Services and 4 years in Education and IT recruitment resulting in a real passion for customer engagement and means Victoria has a real focus on Employer Branding. She ensures that the company culture is not just felt within the Bright HQ but also radiates out to our clients.