Coronavirus Q&A series: Interview with Sharon Ekstein, Chief Business Operations Officer & Chief HR

The Crisis Has Given New Insights Into Flexibility And Work-Life Balance

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.

Sharon: Generally speaking, we can say that after four months, we’ve seen a positive effect on our business, due to our focus on global eCommerce and banking services, and our core services have proven vital to our customers. Because of this, it has been our absolute top priority to ensure our technology and our customer services were available at all times to support our merchants. In fact, we’ve been working very closely with our customers who have been hit by the crisis to offer additional banking services that we hadn’t previously offered, to help them get through these challenging times. Our philosophy of “up-time all the time” led us to design a robust system that doesn't have a single point of failure and that has built-in redundancies, to ensure technological continuity no matter what. So, from our perspective, the COVID-19 impact was much more on the personnel and managerial aspects of the business. 

Faced with the reality of the pandemic, the leadership team at Credorax knew we needed to move fast to adjust to life in the shadow of coronavirus. Our priorities were twofold: implementing our Business Continuity Plan quickly and ensuring that our employees around the world had the tools, resources, and support systems they needed to navigate this new normal.

Sharon: Prior to this, 90% of Credorax’s staff was based in offices with an additional 10% scattered in home offices. Once it became clear that COVID-19 was a crisis, we took a fast decision to implement our Business Continuity Plan, and within 24 hours our offices were closed around the world and 100% of our workforce was working from home. 

The first thing we did was take care of the IT and office setup of our employees and we spent the first 48 hours focused on corporate IT support. This was by design; we opened a new online IT Helpdesk Portal within a day, to make sure that everyone had what they needed from an IT and connectivity perspective to keep working from home as if they were still in the office. Our goal was to make sure that everyone was safe at home and also effective at work.

Once everyone was settled, our most urgent priorities shifted to establishing clear lines of communication throughout the company, sustaining a sense of community, and keeping our workforce engaged and motivated. The biggest challenges we faced in that regard, especially at the beginning were to help our employees adjust to their new reality of working from home and dealing with their personal circumstances simultaneously. We knew that many of our employees were at home with their children and spouses, schools were closed, they had no help, some had sick family members or other worries, and our focus was providing them what they needed to feel stable and supported, so they could still be productive. 

Naturally, the crisis has hurt our ability to hire new people and assimilate them into our company and that’s definitely a new challenge that we’re dealing with now. But overall, we have seen that most people adjusted to this new reality very quickly and most are functioning at higher than ever levels, despite their home/work condition. 

Sharon: Because we are a regulated financial institution, Credorax has a Business Continuity Plan that had previously been built on the main pillars: technology, security and stability, and our management and communications were structured to support those pillars. Our HR approach is also a vital piece of that plan, and it’s rooted in the belief that when managers perform well, their teams perform well – so we’ve worked closely with our managers to equip them with the skills, resources, and insights they need to successfully manage remote teams. Each manager received training in best practices for remote management, and we’re continuously checking in with managers to keep abreast of how they and their teams are doing.

We’ve also devoted painstaking attention to our communication methodology, and we’re making sure that everything that comes from management is clear, concise, and consistent so that our employees are always armed with accurate guidance and information. Our main goal is to reduce their levels of uncertainty. 

Sharon: As previously mentioned, we adopted a step-by-step approach, starting with the physical needs of our employees. Once they were settled in, we began focusing our attention to their emotional and productivity needs as well. For this, we activated a people approach with four points: 
 

1. Develop remote communication skills: Being aware that people in teams need to stay connected, we set the corporate tone by providing clear guidelines on how to work together virtually to avoid the risk of people losing focus or feeling disconnected.
 

2. Be a part of the community: In addition to the formal lines of communication and regular company updates, we built digital communities across informal channels so Credorax’s employees could stay connected from afar and keep the corporate spirit going.
 

3. Take care of ourselves and our physical health: we’ve implemented a company-wide lunch break every day for people to step away from their computer and take care of themselves and we’ve organized regular company-wide virtual workouts a couple of times a week.
 

4. Collaborate and support each other: By adopting an attitude of gratitude, we’re heavily focused on our people’s personal needs and paying special attention to our colleagues that need extra support with gestures that go beyond the company-wide measures.

Sharon: There are two main risks that our HR teams have been focused on: first, we dealt with the risk of our employees losing focus and loss of productivity. Once that was addressed, we knew that within a few weeks, there’d be a real risk of burnout and depression, so we’ve taken measures to keep them as engaged and supported as possible. 

Two years ago, well before the COVID-19 outbreak, we started a company initiative offering employees free therapy in collaboration with a local non-profit organization, as a benefit for whoever needs it. Our employees can schedule free anonymous meetings, if they need someone to talk to and we are proud to continue offering that in these times as well. 

On the less formal route, we’ve seen that our communication channels have been invaluable sources of support, motivation, and encouragement. Our HR teams are working around-the-clock to personally check in with our employees and also stimulate our online communities with some light-hearted fun.

Sharon: It was a testing time for our HR department and this crisis has underscored the valuable role of Business HR teams for the fabric of the company. COVID-19 has instilled a newfound appreciation for the importance of solidarity as a company value and reinforced again how crucial communication are for reducing uncertainty and instilling a sense of trust and security in the workforce. I believe that in times of crisis, you can only lead effectively if you communicate consistently, openly, and empathetically with your workforce while offering them the emotional support and resources they need to navigate uncharted waters.

Additionally, our value of agility has proven itself to be a strong foundation that extends beyond just innovation in tech. As a company, we think fast and act flexibly and without a doubt, this combination has enabled us to adjust to this new reality. It all comes down to our roots in technology, security and stability, which is why our management and communications are so heavily focused on giving our people what they need, and we’re seeing the positive effects during this time of crisis. 

Sharon: Our innovative and supportive company culture has always been our biggest asset, and this crisis has led that culture to take on new forms, from the virtual communities we’ve created to our daily lunch breaks where we all unplug and recharge. These unusual times have forced all of us to think creatively and outside the box when it comes to nurturing our talent, and I hope to see that continue well after this crisis abates.

On a more practical level, this crisis has certainly given me new insights into flexibility and work/life balance. While we miss seeing each other and working together in the physical space, I believe we can also look into new ways to enhance our normal working arrangements and help our employees maintain a healthier work/life balance in the future.