How to Stay Connected as an Office During COVID-19

We’re sure by now you’ve seen no less than 20 or so emails, hundreds of news articles and perhaps thousands of social posts regarding COVID-19 and how businesses plan to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

While no doubt, many of these commutations are extremely important, lifesaving in some cases, this post is different.

Listed below is a collection of learnings and advice that we’ve gathered as a company over the last few weeks that can genuinely help your business embrace the “new normal” and continue doing what we as an industry do best, putting the nation to work.

Getting the Most out of Video

Do you remember how magical it was in the past decade once FaceTime came out? It really turned science fiction into science fact and allowed people to communicate in a whole new, personable way. Fast forward to 2020 and video has advanced significantly. There’s something more meaningful about seeing someone’s face vs. just their voice in a remote office setting.

At Avionté, using video chat vs. phone conversation is not enforced but it is heavily encouraged. Why? It creates a sense of team.

Being able to video chat someone instantly is similar to life back in the office when you could just walk up to a co-worker and ask them a question. Additionally, it adds a sense of professionalism. If you know you might have to be “camera-ready” while working from home, it adds a layer of purpose to your day and comes in handy when a client or boss calls.

Frequent Communication

Our executive team has been fully transparent with what the company is doing and what they are planning on doing with the evolving situation. This helps tremendously keep employees, clients, prospects and partners at ease knowing what’s next. Here’s four communication methods that have been working well:

• Opened up an internal chat group – This digital chat group provides the perfect environment for employees to ask questions, seek answers and offer daily doses of encouragement.
• Daily email updates – Every weekday, an email is sent out from the executive team, sometimes just the CEO, Karl Florida, with updates, encouragements and a touch of humor to keep employees motivated and informed.
• Open digital door policy – While the entire company is working remote, there’s an open digital door policy where employees can easily ask the executive team questions.
• Email blast to all clients, prospects, employees and partners – Even though many companies are actively doing this, it’s still important to communicate to the broader community what your business is up to in regards to the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out Avionte’s email blast.

Tips for Working Remote

Working from home is definitely a “new normal” for many people, especially at our office where only a handful of folks BC (Before Coronavirus) worked remotely. To help ease others in to the remote work lifestyle, we had our remote employees send in their top tips for working productively from home. Check out their ideas in the video below!

Humor

In these perilous and uncertain times, humor still remains one of the best medicines when used appropriately. Whether that be memes, light-hearted dad jokes or even poking fun of the situation you’re in, humor is an excellent tool to keep morale high.

Here’s a few family-friendly jokes about the staffing industry for your enjoyment.

1. I once placed a firefighter for a job order only to find out they got fired a week later.
2. I hear staffing is really good in the garbage industry. Business is always picking up.
3. Did you know that 3.14% of recruiters prefer pie charts?

In closing,

We sincerely hope you find some nuggets of use out of this post. We’re living in some hectic times and it’s no doubt easy to feel disheartened. Just remember that we are resilient as an industry and we will get through this together.

In addition, we have added COVID-19 Resources to the Avionté Knowledge Base. This resource center provides information from across the US and Canada that could affect how you do business. Check it frequently for the latest information and business trends occurring during these challenging times.

About Avionté

Avionté is a leader in enterprise staffing and recruiting software solutions, offering innovative end-to-end staffing solutions to over 900 customers and 25,000 users throughout the U.S. and Canada. Avionté delivers a robust platform for clerical, light industrial, IT and professional staffing firms to maximize profits and boost productivity.