Coronavirus Q&A series: Interview with Abakar Saidov, CEO, Beamery
The Crisis Has Given Us an Opportunity to Be Closer as a Company Than Before
Posted on 06-03-2020, Read Time: Min
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Abakar Saidov is the CEO of Beamery, the Talent Operating System that helps companies attract, engage and retain the best talent. |
The COVID-19 crisis has impacted various aspects of our lives - especially work. With remote working becoming the norm, employees and employers alike, especially the first-timers, are experiencing the ups and downs related to the situation.
On one hand, employees are worried about job security and the challenges of working as a team, on the other, employers are facing issues such as engagement and productivity drop, among others. It now falls upon the leadership to keep the team up and running.
How are the leaders handling the situation? HR.com interviewed senior-level executives from various organizations and asked them to share their lessons and insights.
How has the COVID-19 crisis affected your business?
We’ve certainly felt the impact, both internally and across our customer base. Some customers are in a position where they are reducing headcount or implementing hiring freezes. What has been interesting though, is that they are using this time to focus on rolling out operational changes that will allow them to be more effective on the other side of this, as well as leaning in on Beamery to build pipelines of talent for when they have open roles again.
We’re heavily focused on partnering with our customers to help them stay agile and manage the change. We’re providing a number of products that will help customers adapt to the new situation free of charge for 2020, we’ve launched new modules like virtual events, and we’re accelerating the launch of others that we feel will help customers manage the new reality.
We’ve also launched our #newhome initiative to help connect people that have been laid off with companies that are still hiring. We see ourselves as uniquely positioned to help due to the nature of our product so we’re doing what we can.
Are your employees working remotely? If so, what are some of the challenges you are facing while managing your remote workforce?
There have certainly been challenges, but we had an advantage here in the sense that many teams were already distributed geographically. This gave us an armoury of remote tactics that we’ve been able to scale to the rest of the company. In general, we focus on ensuring that all teams follow simple, repeatable processes that allow for good information sharing and collaboration.
What policies do you have in place to deal with such a crisis?
There are many things that we’ve done to ensure a smooth transition to a remote working environment, but some of the most impactful policies we’ve seen are simple mechanisms to bring people together virtually. Our daily “Beamery Cafe” gives teams an opportunity to connect virtually, and share anything from recipes, to book recommendations, to theories about Tiger King.
What employee engagement challenges do you come across, especially in the current scenario? What are you doing about it?
We’re very focused on making sure that people have what they need to be successful at home, as well as tracking employee sentiment and ensuring that people feel good. We’re offering significant flexibility to those that need it (e.g. working parents). There are a lot of new challenges for everyone, and we’re making sure that we’re there to help
Are you providing or planning to provide any emotional and mental health programs for employees?
Now, more than ever, it’s essential to prioritize the mental and emotional health of our company. We recently launched our new employee engagement tool - The Happiness Index - to collect regular pulse checks on how our team is feeling. We want to hear everyone’s voice.
We have also launched a Wellness and Activity timetable to provide support for employees, help them develop healthy habits, and help them cope with stress and unpredictability. This includes anything from morning coffee chats, to weekly quizzes, to guided meditation, to auto-suggested individual connections.
We have also launched a Wellness and Activity timetable to provide support for employees, help them develop healthy habits, and help them cope with stress and unpredictability. This includes anything from morning coffee chats, to weekly quizzes, to guided meditation, to auto-suggested individual connections.
What leadership lessons have this health crisis taught you?
There are 3 core lessons that this crisis has taught us:
- It is essential to lead with compassion and empathy for your team and for your customers. That means understanding what is most important to them and how you can best support them. Your people and your customers make up the success of the company.
- We need to give people the opportunity to show support and really get behind the business. We created programs where people can show their commitment to help and we’ve had a tremendous uptake. The support needs to be mutual - it’s not just what you can do for your employees and customers or what they can do for you - it’s both.
- Transparency on decision making is very important. Crises lead to tough decisions, but ensuring that your team understands why they are made is equally important. Clarity and timeliness of communication are critical here. We wanted to make sure that people had time to digest and understand and used several different communication approaches including recorded video, live Q&A and written documentation.
What positive change has transpired that you would want to maintain?
The remote environment has led to a lot of positive shifts in how we work, communicate and document. People have made an extra effort to stay connected and get to know each other. In some ways, it’s given us an opportunity to be closer as a company than before. We’ll certainly be looking to maintain the changes we have made to the way we communicate and share information online, as well as the virtual experiences that we have created to bring the company together on a regular basis.
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