How Holler is Handling COVID-19

It’s been a surprising series of events in the past weeks and days as our country continues to adapt to changes related to the Coronavirus. With many details still unknown, taking it one day at a time is simply all that we can do. 

As leaders, we’ve all had to make quick decisions to keep our people, and our business, as safe as possible. It’s not easy to be uprooted from your normal routine, but for us at Holler, these abrupt changes were necessary. 

I decided to move my team to a fully remote operation on March 13th. Our headquarters is in the heart of New York City, and I knew it was the right decision to make for everyone’s well-being. Luckily, as a tech company, it didn’t take too much effort to adjust to an at-home work environment. Still, chatting with co-workers virtually is never the same as being in a collaborative face-to-face environment. 

In order to keep our spirits and productivity high, the leadership team and I brainstormed ways to make the best of the current situation. I wanted to share them with you here in case you’re in need of new ideas on leading a team from afar.

During our first day as a remote team, I sent an email around with some suggestions and inspiration on how to keep spirits high: 

• Integrate a healthy dose of video chats into your days (prizes for the best bed head screenshots and jammies!)
• Keep the conversations going in Slack channels to exchange ideas and keep in touch with people you may not be working with directly
• Get fresh air (avoid cabin fever)
• Memes... more memes :)
• Get creative -- the first Christmas party at Holler was fully remote and everyone brought a 6-pack of beer along with their best 2 truths and a lie

Below, our Marketing team gives a virtual end-of-day high-five:

Our HR team also implemented plenty of new ways to stay in touch with each other while at a safe social distance. Here are some highlights of what we’ll be doing:

• Virtual Happy Hour: This Thursday we hosted our first Virtual Holler Happy Hour to share some “cheers” and play a game of two truths and a lie. It was a great opportunity for employees to get to know each other better and share a few laughs. 
• Virtual Lunch: Co-workers can join each other for a daily virtual lunch chat. We’ve set up a designated chat room for whoever wants to eat and mingle together. Since we typically eat lunch together as a team each day in our cafeteria, it’s a simple way to keep the social lunch atmosphere intact.
• Employee-Hosted Webinars: One of our co-workers who used to work remotely full-time has volunteered to host an internal webinar on how to work from home successfully. For most, working remotely is a completely new experience, so this will be a great opportunity to learn how to adapt. 
• Frequent Company-Wide Meetings: ”All-hands” style meetings that are usually bi-weekly have been turned into weekly sessions. I’ll be giving a fireside chat once a week, to keep everyone informed about the current state of the business. We’ll also make our cross-functional meetings a weekly occurrence, so we can all stay up to date on what other departments are working on (from the comfort of our couches). 
• A List of Resources: Our HR team sent out an in-depth list of resources we think are incredibly useful during this time, including:

1. Professional tips on working from home
2. Reminders about the health and mental health programs offered through our insurance coverage
3. A list of free at-home fitness options

We've also been fortunate enough to meet everyone's pets during virtual meetings and chats, including a horse!

These are just the immediate tactics we’ve put in place over the last week. Of course, none of us are completely sure what lies ahead, and we may need to make even more adjustments along the way. Luckily, we live in a world where we can keep in touch without having to be a desk away.  

I hope you’re all staying well, wherever you’re working from. How is your team adapting to a remote environment? I’d love to hear your creative & effective ideas - comment below!