How I used Wobot Intelligence to ensure my colleague's families about their safety in the office!
Barkha Sharma
CHRO @ Wobot.ai | Shaping HR Strategy, Fostering Talent, Inclusive Culture Champion
Lets get it straight, had COVID been a threat to only you and not so contagious to your loved ones. You probably would have been clicking selfies at the Eiffel tower or watching the IPL in Dubai making the most of the WFH "opportunities". Because hey, I am healthy, if I catch it, I will recover. But what makes you stay home is the fear that what if a loved one catches it.
I have gone through it. We went through it last week of August. It was the first time that since mid March some of the team members planned to meet in the office. A colleague had a new born kid at home. One had a pregnant wife. Others had older parents. Everyone had been careful. Avoiding unnecessary travel.
The virtual sessions had helped. But a majority of the team has grown post covid. It's easier to communicate virtually if the team has worked together in the past. A new team onboarded virtualy which has never met everyone F2F will always be formal at communication. To be honest, this was our justification to deem this as a necessary travel. Also, in the foreseen circumstance someone would have caught it, this would have been the reason to reduce the guilt for lapse in judgement.
I asked the tech team to deploy the facemask and social distancing models on the office cameras. Would have asked to deploy the handwash for 20 seconds detection but then I don't do that for 20 seconds myself. Although WHO claims to care but honestly, who cares? (wah wah)
Initially everyone was awkward. Everyone fist bumping and elbow bumping. Had there been a body shaming detection model the servers would have crashed (Lockdown weight gain). A lot of social distancing violations but luckily everyone with their masks on.
Then the moment of truth. Even the ever cautious ones who keep an amazon package in sunlight for 15 days, then a sanitizer spray with gloves on, then tieing a Janeu to the package, then open the package as if they are investigating the unabomber case. They faltered. We saw a huge number of tickets.
Then we did a slightly mean thing. We added the families to the alerts. So the violations started going to the wives and parents. (Evil move, I admit)
Surprisingly I have the exact moment where I ping Tanay that he isn't wearing a mask. Look at the deer in the headlight face.
Well I am an evil genius because it did wonders.
This made me realise. Everyone wants to comply with rules, at times it's just a nudge which is needed. That is what Wobot enabled that day (using the wives and moms nonetheless)
This is what Wobot can enable. It's not always a violation. it's just human nature at times. A nudge and we improve.
Next time you are worried about your family member going to work. Ask them to secure their workplace, enable a nudge (not a shameless sales plug, as I asked for deploying a nudge and not Wobot). The peace that the families at home derived was immense. They felt comfortable seeing the transparency. The nudges stopped but the compliances continued. This is the beauty of human psychology. Love the way how Wobot helped bring calm to a turbulent experience ( to the covid warriors going on war everyday, sorry for sounding like little babies)
Goes without saying, If you are an HR leader, I'd strongly recommend you to deploy Wobot at your workspace. If not for your employees, at least for their families.