The New Normal
The team at LearningMate has been working exclusively from home for nearly two weeks now. Given the uncertainty that prevailed as LearningMate's Business Continuity team took some steps actioning our business continuity plan, we are proud of what we achieved within such a short time but do understand this is just the first step in our comprehensive business continuity plan.
Earlier in the last week as our team settled into work from home we sent a survey to the team in India to check-in and find out how they were settling into their new normal. The results represent 810 total respondents, answering questions about the first three full days of 100% working-from-home. We polled 899 total people, including our vendor partners, and had a response rate of close to 90%.
Here is the survey and what we found.
Over 90% were able to get set up and work within the first three days. This was surprising to us as more than half the team was unaccustomed to working from home and had very little experience doing so until this time.
The key to this entire endeavor was to ensure communication remains as seamless as possible. It was good to know that more than 96% of the people were able to attend online meetings. While there is a load on the online meetings system globally, we felt this is a very positive statistic. We are currently using Zoom and Hangouts, but are also assessing other remote video and meeting platforms.
We also wanted to know about work completion. Approximately 85% of the respondents felt they were able to complete their work on time. We expected delays in this, particularly related to cross-functional team coordination and communication. We are watching this closely and are addressing these issues in the coming weeks.
Most people were able to log in with minimal issues. We found most issues were related to VPN, Infoweb, or internet bandwidth. We are working to resolve these with remote support from the IT team. As we upgrade the bandwidth at our office hubs next week, we anticipate much smoother access to our systems.
We suspected an internet bandwidth challenge and this will be an area of intense focus for the BCP team in the coming weeks. Another challenge we are forecasting is remote hardware support for decentralized employees that can’t receive in-person IT help. This will be an evolving and ongoing challenge.
As all of us settle in to this new normal with no end-date in sight, we wanted to know how everyone was simply enjoying working from home. For the first three days at least, 80% said they were enjoying it. We'd like to keep it that way as the weeks continue, as well as find ways to make working from home a happy and fulfilling experience. We have a few ideas up our sleeve but we would love to hear from you as well.
Does this data line up with what you’re experiencing?
What are some of the challenges you’re facing?
What are you going to be doing to engage employees and keep morale high during this time?
Nice article. Is the output of your workforce the same, less or more in the WFH situation? Are you measuring it? It would be an interesting metric. Let me explain why. Generally self-driven folks tend to give higher output when they WFH, reason being they actually use the saved hours (from commute) to put in extra work. And most times, they lose track of time as they are focused on work completion for the day not work hours. On the other side of the spectrum are those that need to be managed or monitored, these folks will only work under constant supervision and track hours done not work. But yes daily goal setting might help this group give the desired output. I think the project managers are going to face the toughest challenges in this new normal as they need to identify the above types of people in their teams and focus on the right set of people to keep the ball rolling and the output optimum.😁
Product Management
4yIt is great to such seamless transition to a complete WFH concept Jolvin Rodrigues. I would suggest scheduling a weekly call with the leadership team such that the folks on the ground are kept abreast about how the lockdown and the business challenges across the board are being addressed. We have found that it really brings a new perspective and also helps clear out a lot of doubts that one might have. It also serves as a great platform for people to communicate and voice out the challenges that they are facing. And if I might add, we also encourage video calls with the peers as much as possible.
Director of Sales at Chetu, Inc.
4yIt will be interesting to see to post-virus workplace as almost everyone has been forced to transition from brick and mortar offices to a remote workforce. How many keep the current track and downsize their physical locations? All industries are being forced to look at back up plans for the future. I have worked remotely for almost 20 years but some people don't like it.
This is an incredible story! I watched you pull this off from dealing with laptop supply challenges to your co-opting taxis, rickshaws and colleagues cars into enabling a desktop relocation for 800+ people in multiple locations. Speaks to the team spirit, collaboration, flexibility and the resilience of "jugad" that characterize our LearningMate family. So much respect for everyone who participated and enabled this exercise. Bold decisions and fast actions are what we all need in challenging times. Thanks for sharing your findings here.
Writer & Editor | Content Services Director | Not a purple people eater
4yI also know that this was no small thing logistically. Your team helped people who didn't have company issued laptops take their office desk top computers home, for example. So a lot of the success and comfort to date goes to good leadership and planning.