This month marks the fifth anniversary of COVID-19 being declared a global pandemic. HR Solutions At Work Founder, Judy Kalisker, shares her memories of the week Massachusetts “shut down,” as well as how the pandemic changed the workplace, both generally and at HRSAW.

Five years ago today, everyone in Massachusetts who was not providing essential services was told to stay home and “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 cases. For me, the week leading up to the promised shutdown was hectic as I scurried to finish interviews for three investigations in the far corners of Massachusetts and also led investigation-skills training for 35 people in a small conference room where we all wondered what risks we were taking being in such a confined space. Each day I was in Western Mass, Cambridge, the North Shore, or the South Coast; sometimes I even visited two locations per day.

From a work perspective, the promised “two weeks” of shutdown were eerily quiet. Clients and colleagues stayed in touch, mostly to speculate on whether the shutdown would really be two weeks, or more like two months, six months, or more. Knowing I would have to get back to work in some way, I started to research virtual meeting capabilities. Then, around two months post-shutdown, clients started asking if we could do investigation interviews “virtually” rather than waiting for permission to work in person again.  

My immediate answer was, “Of course we can!” Over the next few weeks, we adapted to doing everything remotely so we could get back to work, which meant moving my investigation interviews, client meetings, trainings, etc., to video conferences. Nowadays, I can’t imagine driving all over the state to do investigation interviews when I can have meetings in every time zone all in the same day! 

Looking Back

There’s no question that the pandemic took a horrific toll on the entire world. In addition to more than seven million confirmed COVID-related deaths worldwide, hundreds of millions more people were extremely ill, and it is estimated that more than 400 million people suffer from long COVID. In the United States, there is a labor shortage resulting from many pandemic-related reasons, such as lingering illness from long COVID, preference for at-home work, and fear of virus exposure in customer-contact jobs. I see the effects of this labor shortage every day, from delayed deliveries to months-long waiting lists for medical procedures. 

In the midst of such upheaval, I find it helpful to focus on some of the work-life improvements that emerged from this global pandemic experience — not to minimize or forget the tragic aspects of the pandemic, but to be grateful for what we learned and how we adapted.

For me personally, remote work eliminated driving time to clients’ offices and led to more family time at home; I was able to leverage technology (Zoom, Teams, Meet, etc.) not only for work but also for personal get-togethers with friends I had not spoken with in years; I attended a wedding across the country without flying, jet lag, or hotels; and I discovered a renewed commitment to wellness, with a daily workout over Zoom becoming an essential part of both my physical health and my stress relief.  

Looking Forward

The improvements to the workplace are not only technological. One of the most positive changes I have noticed is the increased patience that work colleagues have for each other’s non-work commitments. The doorbell rings while you’re in a Zoom meeting? No worries, let’s go on mute for a few minutes while you take care of it. You tested positive for the flu or COVID and have to take a week off? Not a problem, go take care of yourself, the work will wait. You forgot to blur the background and your spouse just photo-bombed your Teams meeting? Hang on, let’s meet your spouse! Things that might have occurred on the other side of the “work wall” started happening, in real time, in the virtual office, and we learned to toggle from personal to work in our home space. 

One thing we are missing, however, is the natural camaraderie that results when people share space in a physical office. Employees who started work during the pandemic often feel like they don’t know their coworkers as well as the coworkers who know each other from pre-pandemic times. When attending in-person meetings, some people arrive early and have a natural opportunity to chat before the meeting starts, allowing people to develop relationships and friendships with colleagues. This, of course, is much harder to do when working and meeting remotely.

Fostering Strong Company Culture for Remote Workers 

HR Solutions At Work has been a 100% remote company since we started in 2013, and I believe that flexibility helps attract and retain top talent. But I also believe in the importance of a strong company culture, which you can’t have if your employees feel disconnected from one another.

To that end, we have established some practices at HRSAW to emulate the in-person office experience for our team members. If you also have employees who are remote some days or every day, I hope that sharing these initiatives will spur your own ideas to maintain employee engagement in a remote workplace. 

Our practices include:

• Pre-scheduling meetings for new employees with someone from each department as part of the onboarding process so they start their time at HRSAW already “knowing” a few people;
• Starting all staff meetings with suitable-for-work icebreakers to help our staff members connect on a social level;
• Encouraging remote meeting participants to stay unmuted and participate as if they were all in one room;
• Having a monthly social hour on Zoom, with a moderator and a “no work discussed” rule;
• Leveraging our internal instant messaging for non-work uses — for example, we have a purely “social” Slack channel for non-work conversations, as well as a “pets” Slack channel so we can get to know each other’s dogs, cats, and bees (yes, really!);
• Sending birthday cards to team members electronically, using a “Kudoboard” so everyone can e-sign the cards as if we were passing them around an office; and
• Encouraging our employees to feel comfortable chitchatting at the start of Zoom meetings, just like they would for an in-person meeting.

We would love to hear how your organization engages remote and hybrid employees! Please shoot us an email or message us on LinkedIn to share your ideas and comments.

If you’d like to reminisce with me, I’d also love to hear your own post-COVID reflections. Thank you for reading and for being part of our ongoing pre- and post-pandemic journey.

Because every situation presents unique facts, the information provided in this article is for general information and is not intended to be legal advice regarding any specific situation. This information may be considered advertising in some states. Any links to third-party sites are for your convenience. HR Solutions At Work does not endorse specific sites or guarantee the accuracy of the information on those sites. Please contact us if you have any questions about this information or our services.