How we navigated 2020 amid the pandemic

When the spread of COVID-19 was catching on, we started to prepare for what laid ahead of us. Around the middle of March, we switched to remote work, hoping it would be a short-time situation. It was not the case, and throughout this period of time, we have adapted and adapted again in order to meet every day’s demands, needs, and, most importantly, to make sure our Experts felt safe and supported.

This article follows our journey from the beginning of the pandemic - with our objectives, challenges, lessons learned - to the current situation and what the future holds.

Setting our priorities straight

”The beginning was filled with uncertainties as I didn't know how the pandemic would affect our colleagues, the company, our clients, and what the future held. So I began looking into ways I could efficiently act and what measures I could take to protect my colleagues, our clients, and maintain financial stability… .” Managing Director, Vlad Pitaru 

As Vlad explained, our main priority was our people, their wellbeing, and finding ways towards financial resilience. The first objective was translated into creating an appropriate working environment that would support teleworking and maintain good communication without leaving colleagues feeling alienated or ignored.

The latter implied not reducing salaries or having to lay off colleagues. Easier said than done, but we worked hard and went the extra mile to stick to our objectives.

Measures implemented to achieve our goals

As we all transitioned to remote work, a myriad of changes had to be implemented. Given the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, suspending certain benefits that were not possible anymore was a must. Some of them were our annual team building, office parties, monthly team activities, etc. 

Additionally, we discussed with our teams to make sure everyone had all the equipment necessary. For instance, colleagues could take their office chairs or their needed tech pieces home. We made sure people were heard, felt supported and we helped as much as we could.

Staying connected has been very important to us. Since we could no longer enjoy each other's company at the office, we established a new routine to stay in touch. 

One measure we immediately implemented was our weekly, online “Let’s connect” meeting with everyone, instead of our monthly, face-to-face gathering. It’s where we all connect on Zoom to discuss updates, voice our needs or concerns in order to stay aligned, and identify the best solutions together. 

In relation to the tech measures we applied, these were:

• Implementing a new architecture for remote access through a VPN. This way, the communication security was strengthened and new rules were deployed to avoid security risks associated with a full work from home scenario.
• Upgrading the internet link speed. As the entire company was working from home, partitioning the traffic based on different purposes (in and out) was taken into consideration together with increased bandwidth.

Challenges we’ve faced

Not being around one another and lacking the spontaneity of conversations at the office during breaks has made it the most difficult part of working remotely. It is impossible to recreate a face-to-face conversation even if technology offers many options. 

“The unpleasant part for me was the lack of direct interaction with my colleagues. I was used to seeing my mates, enjoying a cup of coffee together while coming up with great ideas for work. So, the digital aspect of it all hindered the human touch but we all made an effort to increase our Skype calls and online meetings so we'd stay on the same page… .”                   Business Development Manager, Alex Morarasu

Another aspect that we were concerned about was preventing work-from-home burnout. Working from home keeps you hooked with all the necessities at hand. And it clears the way for spending numerous hours logged at work, without breaks, sometimes even skipping lunch, blurring the lines between professional and personal lives.

Finding the balance between all these elements is the daring part. Luckily, our HR team started having weekly check-ups with all the teams to make sure everyone was doing all right, to offer support, and even to identify burnout and ways to prevent it. 

Similarly, our Dev and QA Leads along with the team leadership increased communication with their peers, as well as the constant check-ups, to ensure healthy work routines, good morale, and to provide support when it was necessary. Yes, we acted fast from the beginning. And during our first weeks working remotely, all teams were encouraged to increase communication, plan daily talks so we could all reach a healthy routine, keeping everyone in sync.

Moreover, the pandemic has constrained us to freeze, for a couple of months, benefits and to put on hold raises that were planned. Even if it wasn’t simple, we had the understanding and the support of our Experts. And throughout this period, we continued to measure our engagement, wellbeing, etc. Data obtained from our surveys has shown that relationships with colleagues and managers has, in fact, increased by 25, respectively, 30 percent since March. 

Our main goal was to survive this new situation and we stuck by one another. And here is where our core values like reliability, trust, and respect contributed to our mindset.

Lessons we’ve learned

So far, the pandemic has tested us, but fortunately, it brought us closer to each other in different ways. This was possible because of the lessons we’ve learned, some of which are:

• That extended work-from-home is not as pleasant when we ‘have to’ as when we ‘want to’. 
• To be more empathetic with each other, and listen more.
• To better address the needs of our teams.
• To implement a career development plan to stimulate the growth of our teams.
• To start working on a growth mindset that can make sense in the ‘new normal’.
• How important balance and discipline are regarding work and personal time.

Our achievements so far:

1. One of the biggest wins has been company stability and reliability in times of a crisis. And our business relies on our culture and runs on our core values - collaboration and trust, passion for what we do, reliability, respect and integrity -  enabling us to emerge from the pandemic stronger.
2. In the first months, new hires were put on hold. Since then, 8 new colleagues and 13 interns have joined our team.
3. This year we also participated, for the sixth time in a row, in the 9th edition of FII Practic. We held our QA, PHP, and .NET training sessions online, enjoying a meaningful and rewarding experience with the students.
4. We continued holding our Internship Programs. The value they bring and how they are structured has led to a record number of participants, i.e. 108 for ASP.NET and 101 for QA, while in the previous years, the maximum number of applications was 75.

Plans for the future

Given the magnitude and tensions of the global crisis, we are shifting our perspective by focusing on what positive change we can bring to our organization. Our shared vision has narrowed down to the following objectives:

• Accelerating the adoption of good DevOps practices and implementing a new performance evaluation system.
• Building and investing in our extended campus. It will provide proper distancing and safety measures for colleagues, while also being a modern background to work in. Additionally, it's an investment in our local community, something we are constantly involved in.
• Developing and implementing an upgraded model of our ‘change management process’ (Bamboo). 
• Preparing to scale up to potentially 150 employees. This will imply upgrading processes and the organizational chart.
• Reorganizing the Expert Network Academy to include a new approach and new training, aka Career Path.
• Maintaining the quality of communication and constant engagement across teams.
• Continue cultivating our culture - mission, vision, values - so that we live through them even more.

Every day, we aim to turn our vision into tangible actions and meaningful change, putting people at the core of everything we do. It hasn’t been easy nor smooth to keep morale up or know how to best respond to uncertainty but we strive to learn more and more. 

From all of us at Expert Network: Good health and resilience everyone!

Thank you for dedicating time to read this article. If you have questions for us, leave us a message and we’ll gladly reply. 

This article was written by Ioana, Expert Network's content writer.