What does working remotely mean for Dialecticans?
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In these turbulent times (thanks to COVID-19), Dialectica faces many challenges, like most businesses do. One common theme faced by business professionals is a complete shift from office to remote work.
The experience of working remotely can vary from person to person, but it is influenced by a company’s business model, structure, processes and most importantly culture.
As we continue our time in remote working and in some cases in quarantine, we wanted to understand how this transition has impacted employees differently (or similarly). We conducted interviews with 8 Dialecticans from different departments and seniority levels to gauge their experience thus far and capture their testimonials from working remote.
Below is a summary of the experiences of our team:
What are the top challenges you have faced while working remotely?
It can take time to get adjusted from shifting to remote work — after all, the working conditions are very different. The challenges vary and are faced from different perspectives.
“The challenge that came up first is how to deal with the comfort of being home”, K. Siomopoulou, a Client Service Associate, said. It may be quite difficult to stay focused when you have to work from the place that you used to relax when you got back from the office.
Additionally, your home workspace (if you even have one!) may not be equipped or have the required space to enable effective work from home. T. Deak Bardos, one of our Client Service Associates commented on having the right equipment to enable remote work. “Sitting on the chair for many hours is not very convenient, but I am considering investing in a good one!”.
You might end up missing more than just the office and equipment. One of our Client Service Senior Managers, E. Alexiou noticed that “what my team members miss the most is not just the office, but the social interaction and office rituals we have in our day to day”. We all spend a good amount of our day at the office and so it is a core aspect of even our daily social interactions. Despite not having physical social interaction, it is crucial to put extra effort into maintaining social interaction, team bonding, and office rituals even when working remotely.
Although there have been challenges, there have also been opportunities. T. Kourtis, Technology Product Owner, highlighted how technology solutions have increased since our transition, “people from Operations have come up with more suggestions for technological developments, so we as the Technology team are fully preoccupied factoring these into our roadmap”.
Additionally, E. Markou, a Talent Acquisition Specialist, mentioned that; “Given the inherent challenges that came with remote work, the People Operations teams came into the spotlight. We have been reviewing the situation, and based on the issues/challenges we saw arising, we quickly acted to put in motion initiatives to enable remote working and enhance team effectiveness and communication. Luckily we have an agile mindset and this is reflected in our team’.
How do you stay productive?
Working remotely is actually helping our people reinvent new ways to drive improvements and optimize performance.
An experienced Client Service Associate Manager, A. Gkinitsopoulos, is now on course to start delegating management responsibilities to other members of the team and completing the training of new Associates who joined in January. He specifically indicated; “Keeping morale high, maintaining business as usual and embracing the opportunity of self-improvement is crucial at this stage”.
On a similar note K. Siomopoulou, also shared with us; “I had the chance to rethink my work schedule and monitor work by creating dedicated communication channels to review progress against different projects or activities. That helped me have better alignment and direct communications with my team”.
Adopting the mindset of self-improvement is a great way to make the most out of challenges and hardships when things seem uncertain, as you can still make an impact. One of our Client Service Managers, T.Ioannidis, specifically commented on how despite a global slow down, he has been able to improve performance among his team. “This is a chance to manage the capacity of my team better, so we can deliver our market leading service faster”. Despite the shift from ‘business as usual’, our teams have still retained the operational excellence that defines Dialectica and continue to hone it further.
G. Sardis, one of our Vice Presidents, insisted on continuing the normal and casual communications he used to have face to face with his team members in the office. “Be humorous, direct, and always willing to help,” he said. Dialectica’s competitive advantage is its people. “We need to maintain this beneficial common code of conduct for every person in the company, be able to personalize advice and motivation”.
How is Dialectica keeping up?
At the end of the day, our unique company culture is what drives our ability to transition to remote work effectively and maintain strong performance. “This is a unique experience for us and the People Operations team, and so far we had the opportunity to get to know each other more”. E. Markou added. Speaking about a company-wide transformation she also believes that; “The strength of our culture will be evident to everyone once we will move back to the office”.
E. Alexiou, highlighted that the challenge of the extensive remote work under these circumstances and the isolation feeling is something you cannot easily prevent. “The shaping of a good and strong culture by the company will keep ensuring a healthy culture engagement over every team member”.
On specific elements of Dialectica’s culture, T. Ioannidis mentions; ”Transparency is the key. Honest communication all across the company has made his team feel secure for the future” so he feels confident for every member’s contribution from now and then. At the early stages of outbreak there was a lot of uncertainty on how the financial markets will be affected. Dialectica’s management team put employees’ minds at ease at a company wide video conference, by sharing their honest take on the situation and communicating the actions that our teams will focus on in order to weather the storm.
“Trust is a top motivator”, T. Kourtis said, also referring to this particular action. Having moved recently from Denmark to join Dialectica, he is very glad to work for a company that brings out the same quality as his previous workplace which had an already established remote work practice.
In light of the experiences of our team, we can all agree that although remote work can be challenging, Dialectica has managed to ride the wave and successfully implement remote working. That is not to say we have not faced our own challenges, but thankfully due to our strong culture, adaptable, and hard working team, we were able to make a significant challenge that would have rocked most companies and turn it into an opportunity to develop. As we slowly come out of the COVID crisis, we are confident that with our Culture and People we will be able to maintain ‘business as usual’ even during the most difficult times ahead.
Written by: Elvira Vlassi and Harry Skordis
