Working From Home: How Perceptive Automata is Doing it Amid COVID-19
As a result of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, companies in all industries are learning how to adapt to the “new normal” — or at least what the new normal is, currently. For most not on the front lines, that means shifting operations to 100% remote and online working. At Perceptive Automata, we’ve always provided flexible work options, so our team has been fortunate to experience a relatively smooth transition to working remotely full-time, but that’s not to say it hasn’t come with some challenges.
The team at Perceptive Automata has always been early adopters of the most cutting edge workflow operations technologies. For example, we are big proponents of Slack and Zoom, which have played a large role in streamlining communications across the team during this period of working from home full-time. We decided to increase our All Hands meetings from bi-weekly to weekly, ensuring that the full-team is able to check in with each other, which has been working out well. Certainly, we miss checking in with each other in the office the most. There’s no doubt that a significant loss in face-to-face time has had an impact on company culture, but we took more of a pivot approach.
Rather than accepting a complete loss when it comes to things like team lunches and happy hours, we’ve implemented virtual coffee hours and lunches, game nights, and use an app called Donut that integrates with Slack to set up randomized one-on-ones between co-workers each week. Overall, the team has enjoyed catching up with one another, and this has actually fostered more opportunity for cross-departmental collaboration. Additionally, to keep things fun, we held a Zoom virtual background competition during one of our weekly company happy hours. We have had one employee go as far as ordering a green screen to ensure that he has a really great virtual background on all Zoom calls. And we have had some new visitors and “colleagues” joining Zoom meetings too — Babies, pets, spouses, and all sorts of people and we love getting to know our team members a little bit extra during this time.
Along with the creative ways we’ve adjusted to keep company culture alive, the team has ultimately noticed boosted morale as a result of things like slashed commute times, more family time, and increased time to enjoy the outdoors (when it’s nice out!). In general, the team has been incredibly resilient during such a trying time that constantly forces us to face the unknown.
We are thankful that our full team remains healthy, and safe at home. We are also thankful that we work on a technology that can be developed remotely. The autonomous vehicle industry has been in the spotlight over the past couple of weeks with regards to how AVs can assist in contactless deliveries, contactless rides, and more, and the team at Perceptive Automata will continue to put our best foot forward for our customers.
While we are okay working from home, we hope to be able to return to our new office digs soon and be together again as a team. We miss the views of Boston, eating lunch together and collaborating on projects in-person. While we know returning to the office will be different and a bit of trial and error, we very much look forward to being together again.
