Working from home
We have taken the decision this week to close our studios in Bristol and London until further notice. We have always allowed our team-mates to work flexibly from home as and when required, but in response to the current health situation, we have introduced a full work-from-home model to ensure that our colleagues are safe.
All face-to-face communication with clients and partners will now be replaced with virtual meetings and phone calls. Rather than just audio, we prefer video to allow for the personal, friendly and secure service our clients have come to expect.
This is a big change for some of our clients but we are confident it will have little impact on the great collaboration between our teams. For those not familiar with working from home, we are offering regular online training sessions to share best practice and advice.
We will shortly be sharing a ‘Zone works from home’ series written by our colleagues to demonstrate the successes and inevitable failures as we navigate this new landscape, but our top three tips for working from home are:
1. Communicate frequently:
When a team is working remotely, casual opportunities to connect are less frequent, so it’s easy for a team or a team member to get out of sync on a new decision or status of a task. It’s best to err on the side of caution, and give regular and often status updates, even if it may seem like overkill.
2. Hold regular check-ins:
Conduct regular check-ins and aim for a huddle/stand-up with your direct team at least every other day. Regular team check-ins between people working on the same project is crucial. Manager and individual 1:1s should continue and, ideally, more often than normal: discussing how they are doing, barriers to working and work outputs will be invaluable. Constantly evaluate your meetings, and adjust their frequency as necessary. Sometimes you’ll find that you need to meet more often remotely than you would in person to keep work moving forward.
3. When in doubt, doc it out:
Every project being worked on should be well-documented, so decisions can be traced back. Documenting will help ensure that everyone is on the same page in terms of approach, roles and responsibilities, action items and key decisions.
As a customer experience agency with strong expertise in digital transformation, Zone has been operating in the cloud for a number of years so we already have the infrastructure in place to allow our Zoners to work securely from any location. Our team have the hardware, tools, platforms and processes in place to continue to provide an excellent service for our clients.
Of course, with the schools closing we appreciate that many of our team will be juggling childcare with their jobs, so flexible working goes without saying and all clients will be informed by their client lead if there are any major changes in their team’s availability. We appreciate many of our clients will find themselves in the same predicament so we will always be flexible to meet their needs where we can.
Travel
As per government guidelines, all international travel was suspended on Friday 13 March.
Mental wellness
These are unprecedented times and it is inevitable that such events bring about increased anxiety. The physical and mental health of our colleagues is our highest priority. We are ensuring regular, daily team check-ins so those in isolation do not feel alone, as well as bi-weekly company-wide meetings with our management team. We encourage all our staff members to take regular breaks, exercise and talk to one another and their friends and family to support each other through these testing times. We have an internal company microsite dedicated to the pandemic where all useful information, government and company guidelines and support can be found.
Commitments
Zone is in a strong financial position and is committed to operating to our usual business standards. We will continue to honour all client and employment contracts, ensuring all our suppliers are paid on time and providing timely and accurate information as and when it is required.
It is important our team-mates feel empowered through this time. With frequent and transparent communication and proactive strategies for managing employee, client and partner well-being, we are confident that Zone can steer through this crisis and be prepared for whatever comes next.
To all our colleagues, clients and partners: stay safe, stay healthy, stay cheerful and stay connected.
Zone
