Sulit dipercaya bahwa kami sudah bekerja dari rumah selama tujuh minggu. Ketika pemerintah Belanda pertama kali mengumumkan pada tanggal 12 Maret 2020, bahwa semua orang harus tinggal di rumah jika memungkinkan, kami segera bertindak. Dalam waktu 30 menit, CEO kami, Robert Vis, telah mengirim pesan kepada semua karyawan Birds di seluruh dunia, meminta mereka untuk membawa pulang laptop, pengisi daya, dan barang-barang penting lainnya ke rumah pada hari itu juga - karena sejak sore itu dan seterusnya, semua kantor kami akan ditutup.

Dalam (secara harfiah) satu malam, kami bertransisi ke kerja jarak jauh untuk lebih dari 350 orang di delapan kantor di seluruh dunia!

Sebagai perusahaan, kami memantau pandemi virus Corona dengan cermat dan melakukan segala yang kami bisa untuk mencegah penyebarannya, dan yang terpenting, melindungi kesehatan dan kesejahteraan karyawan kami. Kami bangga dengan respons cepat kami; dan saat ini kami sedang mempersiapkan fase kerja jarak jauh berikutnya, kami ingin berbagi beberapa pelajaran yang telah kami pelajari dan apa yang telah kami lakukan untuk menyiapkan karyawan dan tim kami untuk meraih kesuksesan secara virtual. Bagaimanapun juga, kami adalah #sebuahkebersamaan.

Panduan Bekerja Dari Rumah (WFH)

As it seemed more likely that an “intelligent lockdown” scenario would come into effect for countries around the world, we focused on how to quickly and efficiently help our teams transition to working from home. We created best-practice guides for Birds and managers, plus parents and caregivers who faced additional challenges balancing the new work-life reality. These guidelines helped us ensure we maintained our Bird style of working while supporting the flexibility required to make WFH successful. 

Dapatkan teknologi yang tepat

As a tech company, we didn’t have to do a lot to ensure we had all the right collaboration tools in place to allow for virtual, real-time working together. Our day-to-day includes Hangouts, Slack, WhatsApp, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and we are fortunate enough that we’re used to going completely remote as a company (the last time being for our company offsite in Marrakech di beginning of the year). However, we have gained extra appreciation for these tools as they continue to help us bridge the virtual divide, ensuring we remain connected and talking constantly.  

Jaga agar komunikasi tetap mengalir

Di Bird, kami selalu berusaha untuk menjadi setransparan mungkin. Bersikap jelas dan lugas membantu kami menjaga kecepatan dan memastikan bahwa kami semua berjalan ke arah yang sama. Dalam situasi seunik ini, kami merasa penting untuk meningkatkan komunikasi internal kami ke tingkat berikutnya - berbagi informasi dengan lebih cepat dan pada saat itu juga, termasuk dalam situasi yang tidak menentu.

SERBA BISA SECARA GLOBAL:

We started running our global All-Hands meetings on a weekly basis. These company-wide meetings had been introduced when we were just 30 people, and since then, they’ve become a monthly figure in our calendars. As a global company, these normally kick-off at 1:00 p.m. CET, and typically last between 60-90 minutes; with moving them to a weekly cadence, we made them shorter (30 minutes) and, ultimately, more impactful. We keep ke same content structure — introducing our new Birds, sharing business updates, celebrating milestones, giving Kudos shout-outs, and driving alignment around our company strategy. We always have an open Q&A di end where we read out and answer all questions (unfiltered). We then capture these in an FAQ which we share on our internal communications hub so everyone can review and reflect on the answers. We feel this also helps our managers be able to provide more details and context to their teams on the topics they care about the most.  

BULETIN MINGGUAN YANG BARU:

Kami telah meluncurkan buletin global mingguan baru untuk berbagi informasi penting tentang COVID-19, informasi bisnis, pembaruan karyawan dan tim, serta wawasan keuangan. Namun, bagian yang paling banyak dibaca dari buletin ini adalah "Vlog WFH" yang sedang berlangsung di mana kami menampilkan tiga Burung yang membawa kita ke dalam sarang WFH mereka. Mulai dari CFO kami yang membangun ruang kerja khusus di bawah meja makan bersama ketiga putrinya hingga Penasihat Umum kami yang membalap putranya dengan sepeda roda tiga di halaman belakang rumah, video-video ini selalu sedikit lucu dan berisi saran-saran unik mengenai cara menyukseskan kerja jarak jauh. Bagian terbaiknya: mereka menandai tiga orang lain yang berada di antrean berikutnya untuk melakukan hal yang sama pada minggu berikutnya.

DISINKRONKAN DENGAN MANAJER GLOBAL:

It’s important to us to keep building our leadership community as we adapt to leading distributed teams. To make this happen, we pull our global people leaders together every Wednesday to discuss important organizational and people topics, and answer any questions. 

MENINGKATKAN IC KAMI CHANNELS:

Kunci dari komunikasi internal adalah bahwa komunikasi tersebut harus mudah - mudah dipahami, ditemukan, dan dibagikan. Selama pandemi ini, kami berfokus untuk mengoptimalkan komunikasi internal kami channels guna memastikan bahwa semua Bird dapat menemukan informasi yang mereka butuhkan, kapan pun mereka membutuhkannya, dan bagaimana pun mereka membutuhkannya. Hub IC kami (dijuluki The Kiwi) adalah saluran pusat kami untuk semua informasi - Birds dapat menemukan semuanya di sini: tindakan pemerintah dan otoritas kesehatan terbaru, rencana keberlangsungan bisnis, pembatasan perjalanan, FAQ, panduan WFH, buletin mingguan, serta semua pengumuman global dan regional. Semua komunikasi channels mengarahkan tim kami kembali ke pusat ini.

Try to keep it fresh and fun 

We would not be Bird if we didn’t introduce some fun into our new day-to-day. So we’ve added one more IC channel — The BirdFeed — where we share healthy recipes, our favorite Spotify playlists, series and movies to binge watch, and the best books to read. We also host virtual meditation sessions and hard-core workouts hosted by our own in-house trainers. We even have a Bird University digital library where we share online courses for people to continue to work on their development and personal growth.  

Set the right expectations

COVID-19 telah mengguncang kita semua, dan ketidakpastian saat ini diperparah dengan keharusan untuk mengadopsi rutinitas yang benar-benar baru - "normal" yang baru - di mana kehidupan pribadi dan pekerjaan kita telah sepenuhnya menyatu. Sulit untuk menyeimbangkan semuanya.

So as a company, we’ve tried to set the right expectations. The most important thing we can encourage our Birds to do is take a break! Schedule some time to exercise, read, try out a new recipe or pause for a cup of coffee. Take some time off and step away completely from their laptop for a day or more. The mental health and wellbeing of our Birds is so important — to us, their friends, and especially their family. To further support them, we offer coaching for individuals and teams on coping with the COVID-19 situation.

Orientasi virtual

Despite these unusual work circumstances, we remain focused on growing the business. We’re continuing to source and hire the best talent in the industry, with all interviews completed virtually. Although we love bringing all new joiners to our Amsterdam headquarters to kick-start their onboarding, we’ve had to find a different way to help them ramp up.  Around the world, all newly hired Birds are shipped the MessageBird starter pack, including a laptop, branded “swag” and noise-cancelling headphones. We also launched a new digital onboarding app and training tool which allows Birds to explore everything from our culture and our offices to products and commercial strategy, right from their mobile phone. And we’ve also designed virtual onboarding kits for both new hires and their managers, to ensure a smooth welcome ke MessageBird family.

Melihat ke depan

We won’t deny it — we’re excited to return to our offices. We miss our teams, colleagues, lunches and Friday beers. But the truth is, we don’t know if we’ll be able to go back in three weeks or three months. Although we’re preparing for all eventualities, our main focus is on continuing to make today’s reality work. We’re keeping our culture alive at every touchpoint, keeping pace and making traction — really just making it work to “get shit done.” 

So, until we’re able to safely go back to the office location, let’s make sure we keep staying connected, sharing best practices, and supporting each other through this period. At MessageBird, we believe in the power of different perspectives (and ideas)! So, if you have any tips, tricks or your own lessons learned, we’d love to hear about them so we can learn from you. 

Untuk saat ini, tetaplah sehat, tetaplah aman, dan mari terus berbagi.