Why We’ve Joined The #StayAtHome Club
Many of you will have read this article on COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and the imperative of social distancing. At Anthemis, we’ve decided to enact ‘good citizenship’ proactively in our respective locations and ask that everyone work from home to help to limit transmission and reduce the potential for overloading our health systems. Whilst we have always facilitated flexible working, we’re going one step further to protect the health of our teams and business.
It’s now clear that there will be no signpost or obvious signal to enact your response plan — the key is to start now. Acting decisively as circumstances change will position you for greater resilience and responsiveness.
A defining feature of the organisational response to Coronavirus has been the rapid and global open-sourcing of response plans, policies and updates, allowing speedy knowledge and sharing of best practice.
Authentic collaboration and net positive impacts are part of our value set at Anthemis so, in that spirit, we have shared (a few) tips with our portfolio company founders and CEOs for working through the Coronavirus over the coming weeks, with an emphasis on the importance of leadership and timely communications. We also found Sequoia’s open letter to startup leaders to be a timely read.
Working as distributed teams across different geographies is native to us as a company. The use of virtual collaboration technology enables us to stay plugged in continually, so we expect to be able to continue to operate seamlessly (and thrive), fully remotely. We know that great asynchronous communication is vital to our remote teams’ productivity. We appreciate also that this is new and uncertain terrain for some and considerations range from seeking out advice on virtual collaboration, and communication tools through to building a remote work policy for the first time or taking a playbook-driven approach.
You may be looking for a remote work emergency toolkit or quick strategies to set up remote work during the Coronavirus outbreak. You may have foundational practices in place already and are looking to enhance your remote work culture or leverage from an ultimate guide to remote work.
Like many companies, you might also be navigating your strategy around event planning and moving from in person to virtual. Here are some best practice tips and tools to get you started.
It’s imperative that People & Culture teams are preparing appropriately, considering communication planning and establishing a checklist for privacy and confidentiality. Taking on board the duty of care and legal obligations around Coronavirus as well as the potential need to navigate racist tropes, requires keen awareness and robust planning.
The operating reality is complex and presents the need to consider support for mental wellbeing actively in order to combat the potential for burnout, feelings of isolation and anxiety. It also presents a wonderful opportunity for creativity and new forms of maintaining focus, connection and alignment. We have started experimenting with a daily open zoom ‘social’, a virtual ‘drop-in’ to support connection that mimics the effect of casual chat around the kitchen to facilitate a social boost on days where individuals might need it most.
We are also harnessing the opportunity to forge and foster greater ecosystem connections and will start an insurtech webinar series aimed at bringing a diverse group of perspectives together around a shared interest in insurance and risk management. If you’d like an invite, please email us.
In this moment of uncertainty and rapid change, flexibility, collaboration and good citizenship will be key ingredients to ensuring business continuity across the globe. We’d love to hear how you are staying ahead of the curve. To join the conversation, please reach out to our team or reach me at @brianavans.
