Barking Dogs, Kids and Communication

As I look back at the past few weeks, I am amazed at how fast the events that have impacted our companies and our lives have unfolded. I know most companies (including mine) prepare for business continuity and/or some form of crisis management, but not to the degree we are experiencing right now. The one element that is often missed in the efforts of ensuring a company continues to operate effectively – is the wellbeing and support of its employees.

I’d like to share with you some of the things we have done at my company during this evolving crisis that may help with your own planning.

As soon as we recognized the need to address potential business disruption, we quickly implemented our Continuity teams and met twice a day to identify any gaps in our plan. What was great was the hyper focus and priority on our employees' welfare and safety. While this may be obvious, I believe it goes further into also accommodating how they work, adjusting expectations and focus on constant communications.

I have often talked about the four C’s of leadership (Cultivate, Coach, Communicate and Care), but I realized I may have missed one along the way. And that’s around Community! We moved our entire company “community” to a virtual (which is much harder than it sounds for a life and annuity carrier) environment in 5 days!

So, what has made it work so far?

1. Adjusted expectations: We use video conferencing a lot and assured our team that it’s okay, to have kids in and out of frames, or barking dogs in the background. This is also true of our associates serving customers on the phones and the like. Because of this support, I am convinced it has helped us across the board and created a sense of community. We also have virtual chat rooms for teams, competitions among teams and more importantly I have gotten to know my colleagues’ dogs, cats and kids a little better. Let’s face it, we often don’t get to see that, but it has definitely pulled our entire team closer.
2. Communication early and often: We are communicating daily with our employees, in chat room huddles, with emails, and video conferences. We pulled together a town hall, where our CEO, President and Chief of Human Resources addressed issues and concerns head on. I too am writing frequent updates to our team. I believe it is important that the entire team knows transparently where we are and what we are doing for the company – and more importantly how we are supporting them.
3. Flexibility: Where you can, be flexible and understanding to your employees needs, as this is an unprecedented times for all of us. It will come back to you tenfold in the long run.
4. Having Fun: This is probably the most important. We have had virtual toasts and some groups decompressing after work in video chats sharing stories and ultimately learning more about each other.

At the end of the day it’s the people that make companies great. I know at our company we are doing our part to ensure we’re conducting business-as-usual, which includes working with our community of colleagues to achieve our common goals.

How are you making it work? Share your stories, I’d love to hear them.