The closure of non-essential businesses and physical distancing mandates across the globe from COVID-19 has revealed an important challenge for organizations needing to quickly adopt a remote worker strategy. Over the course of a month businesses have had to quickly mobilize their in-office workforce with the tools they needed to work from home, while maintaining security and compliance. As leaders and internal teams were busy focusing on the “how” we also needed to pay close attention to our most critical asset – the people.

Organizations needed to ensure the mental well-being of its employees as they experience a major shift in their daily routines. Helping them stay engaged and motivated to ensure productivity and operational efficiencies, as best as possible. The unfortunate truth after a few weeks many remote employees started to feel the burden of isolation and missing the lack of in-person collaboration with their colleagues.

At Tangentia our team was already experienced in collaborating and working remotely with offices in both Canada and India and employees working onsite in Saudi Arabia and different parts of Canada but we realized we needed to do more. So we introduced a Remote Employee Engagement Program to tackle low morale and ensure everyone felt connected.
One initiative we launched is called –“Tangentia Talkies”

Tangentia Talkies is a daily session conducted on Google Hangout, which is presented by an employee for a short duration (10-15 minutes) with a Q&A period at the end. The format resembles a “talk show host” experience, which can be derived from the name itself (Tangentia Talkies). It begins with a theme song and continues with a presentation from the speaker. Once the presentation is over, the final credits are rolled, and everyone applauds the speaker and the listeners for their active participation in contributing to our collaborative culture.

The topic presented could be anything under the sun! The presenter could choose to educate the team on a topic they are passionate about, spread awareness for a cause or share a hidden talent with the team!

Some of the topics that have already been shared by the Tangentia team are Trust in the Digital Era which was presented by Rajhans Gupta(Sales Manager) wherein he spoke about the importance of trust and the effect it has on brands, ratings and protocols. The five main elements of trust and how companies can work on building trust among their consumers. Malav Kansara, Manager- Staffing presented on the “importance of Mental Health”. He presented a topic which is still considered a taboo with sensitivity and flair. He encouraged everyone to normalize this topic and seek help, if needed. You go to a doctor when you feel ill physically, the mind is no different- it also needs a specialist to heal.Priyanka Phadte, a trainee from the RPA vertical presented on “Parable” and encouraged everyone to think outside the box wherein the possibilities are infinite.She used animation in her presentation and showcased the different skills that she possessed. An otherwise shy and soft spoken- Shweta Kandri presented on the “Mystery called Dreams”. She explained a few famous theories on dreams like the Freudian Theory and the Modern theory and gave us a few interesting facts on dreams too.
The goal of the activity is to encourage open communication, maintain daily interaction with the team and eliminate the feeling of isolation – even if it’s for a short time.

The format resembles a “talk show host” experience, which can be derived from the name itself (Tangentia Talkies). It begins with a theme song and continues with a presentation from the speaker. Once the presentation is over, the final credits are rolled, after the HR department applauds the speaker and the listeners for their active participation in building our collaborative culture.

For businesses navigating these times of uncertainty the highest priority is often maintaining relationships and project success, but at Tangentia we work hard to find the balance between partners, projects and our people. We utilize collaboration tools such as Google Hangouts, Chat, WhatsApp and our phones to maintain open communication with our team.
We hope by sharing what we are doing at Tangentia during COVID-19, that it inspires other companies to implement similar programs, afterall we are all in this together.

#StayHome #FlattentheCurve