Strenghten company culture during covid | Headroom Assistance
|

How Headroom is strengthening company culture during the Covid-19 pandemic

Executive Assistant working from home and talking to colleagues online

During the pandemic, things had to change rapidly for companies, starting from a shift to remote work. This poses real challenges to maintaining a strong company culture. At Headroom, we’ve been remote-first since day 1. So we’re already well prepared for remote working.

Still, the situation for us is very different from before now that employees mainly work at home, instead of a few days a week. The big questions for our People & Culture team now are:

  • How do we keep a good team feeling and a cohesive company culture?
  • How do we keep colleagues motivated?
  • What do we do to stay sharp and maintain focus?

Here are a few tips & tricks we’re testing

  • Talk openly with each other about the current situation and share mistakes & learnings from it
  • Make sure you have that social moment; get-togethers can also be held digitally
  • Take some time now and then to go outside or to exercise
  • Be careful not to micromanage

1. Digital Training Program

In times of uncertainty, focusing on your own learning and development can give a sense of purpose and direction. At Headroom we do this in several ways; for example, our training program continues, but digitally. In addition, we put an extra focus on the challenges Executive Assistants face in the current situation; how do you deal with working fully remote, and what are the consequences for your wellbeing?

2. Weeklys & Monthlys

Human connection is never been more important than now: that’s why we make sure we get together as a team (virtually) every week. This is how we keep our transparent way of communicating high on the agenda. Besides pure business, we also share our personal experiences and what we’re dealing with at the moment. That way we try to recreate that sense of normality and those spontaneous moments when we would have a chat with each other over a cup of coffee or during a Friday afternoon drink.

3. Take 5

The pandemic and lockdown is taking a toll on everyone’s mental health, and as a company we need to factor that and try to support our colleagues as much as possible. On Slack and during our weeklys, we encourage the team to take frequent breaks, go for a walk or a run to clear their heads and gain new energy. We also set up a “Wellbeing” Slack channel to share mindfulness tips, work-outs and resources, or simply share thoughts and experiences.

4. Teamwork

Another important issue at this time is how EAs can best support their executive during a global pandemic. It’s a new situation for everyone, and it can be overwhelmed to figure it out all by yourself. That’s why we encourage our EA colleagues to talk to each other and share tips and tricks. Because even in these challenging times we can add a lot of value for our members.

5. Empowering Beats Micromanaging

Finally, we make sure that we do not micromanage; we want to give more space to our employees through coaching & training.

Back to overview