The year 2020 witnessed tremendous change and difficulty—not only because of the COVID-19 pandemic but also due to heightened chaos over racial discrimination and climate change. From the ongoing health crisis and its impact on diverse communities and businesses to the swelling urgency of climate change to racial and social justice, the year was more cluttered than many could have imagined. Clearly, the main emphasis for enterprises, schools, and many other organizations were to understand, react, and learn lessons from the rapidly unfolding events. Unanticipated twists and turns were revealed with each news broadcast and as the year ends it shows us the complete picture in retrospect.
When the toll of COVID-19 started to take its effect on businesses, organizations were plunged into such uncertainty, that it was hard for many to know whether they would emerge intact. Several companies have pledged to support their workforces amid the crises and have delivered on that promise, demonstrating their reliability and upholding their reputation. It was not much different for ThinkPalm Technologies, with tailored responses to meet workplace challenges, expanding on the goodwill and camaraderie earned us the courage to keep moving forward. As it turns out, most enterprises did a wonderful job of addressing their employees’ essential demands of safety, security and stability during the initial phase of the COVID-19 crisis. However, employee needs are evolving, and it’s the responsibility of the enterprise to call for a more sophisticated approach and keep their employees prepared for the next phase.
Though each day brings more uncertainties, ThinkPalm took definitive actions that improved their resilience and strength, keeping work from home interesting and delivering to customers on time. As we believe, a strategy that outlines a path forward, providing clarity amid the uncertainty can make the difference between organizations that thrive and those that don’t.
From the very beginning, ThinkPalm has relentlessly strived to instill a sense of calmness among their workforce, enabling employees to stay focused and productive. But enabling a healthy and secure remote workforce goes beyond group-meeting software and providing network access tools. For this, ThinkPalm has equipped employees to work productively outside a traditional office with a range of strategies to ensure business continuity and employee happiness.
In the ongoing time of rapid change and unpredictability, ThinkPalm authorities have taken proactive measures to assure that they are managing the vulnerabilities to employees and the general public, as well as resolving broader operational issues. As a company with 500+ employees, ThinkPalm has always stood out as a company that celebrates an environment in which innovation and employee dedication are the true pinnacles in customer satisfaction and success.
ThinkPalm management has stayed focussed on ensuring the safety of employees through frequent follow-ups directly from the CEO’s desk and has also emphasized creating awareness among employees. The remote work strategy was brought into action from the beginning of March 2020 itself and employees were provided with the required infrastructure to ensure a seamless working condition even at home. The HR team has also incorporated engagement activities and social media contests to keep ThinkPalmites entertained. The IT support team at ThinkPalm made sure that they enabled a smooth transition to work from home through continuous assistance.
Here’s how ThinkPalm successfully handled the COVID-19 situation and switched over to remote working by employing a variety of different measures.
- Empowering a remote workforce
- Engaging Employees with virtual events and activities
- Enhancing employee knowledge with online classes
- Protecting against new cybersecurity risks
- Supporting with daily health precautionary updates on COVID-19
- Online Yoga Classes and Exercise sessions
- Online Health and Mental Awareness sessions
Empowering A Remote Workforce
Like many private-sector employers, ThinkPalm management has been following the dire news about the spread of the virus locally and has been taking necessary precautions to keep employees safe. By the beginning of March, the management had notified employees in advance of the possibility that the physical office would be closed temporarily. Employees from quarantined districts were asked to work from home and were urged to practice social distancing. Towards the end of March, most employees were shifted to a full “work-from-home” model. The employees without resources (laptops, broadband, etc.) were provided with the necessary resources.
Engaging Employees With Virtual Events And Activities
To upkeep employee engagement, ThinkPalm hosts virtual events, competitions and challenges for employees. We believe that, in addition to giving employees clear objectives, leaders need to guide, inspire, and enable them to overcome challenges that bog them down. These challenges could be anything from stress to household chores, so a fun activity could develop and deepen cheerful conversations and help take their mind off stress. Further approaches include virtual coffee dates and social media events, as well as virtual conferences where team members can openly interact with each other.
Enhance Employee Knowledge With Online Classes
By taking advantage of new-found agility and virtual dependence, ThinkPalm has continued to enhance employee knowledge even during remote working. Employees are constantly engaged with online classes as well as with sessions conducted on its in-house learning platform, Vigyan. Not only that, with our e-magazine, Jalakam, ThinkPalmites have an opportunity to share their talents and creativities as well as learn more about the skills of fellow employees. This has ensured that during their downtime, employees remain engaged and use their time productively to learn new technologies as well as develop their talents.
Protect Against New Cybersecurity Risks
Capitalizing on the pandemic, cybercriminals are launching novel attacks, using tactics from phishing campaigns and malicious domains to targeted malware and ransomware. ThinkPalm’s IT support team has helped implement several safe remote working software that have been incremental in helping keep up with the employee productivity as well as data security. Also, effective threat remediation through advanced threat mitigation efforts and classes has increased the ability of individuals to work together on complex security problems.
Support With Daily Health Precautionary Updates On COVID-19
Now, more than ever, employees need information. Which is why the officials at ThinkPalm send out weekly updates to employees regarding the pandemic and the different precautions required to stay safe. Amid the surrounding chaos, ThinkPalm has been constantly posting articles, conducting sessions and virtual meets on employee network platforms, and is always digitally connected with customers, employees, and communities.
Online Yoga Classes And Exercise Sessions
Millions of workers all around the globe were thrust into a sudden, chaotic experiment of lockdown and were unable to go outside, visit gyms or yoga classes, or indulge in daily activities like they used to. Therefore, to ensure that the employees enjoy a relaxing and safe remote work experience, ThinkPalm has provided free online yoga classes that are crucial to balance mental and physical wellness during stressful times. Employees as well as instructors, who are certified in various fitness programs conduct these sessions which can be not only participated by employees but their families as well. ThinkPalm understands the correlation between physical activity and mental health and is also encouraging its employees to take part in other types of activities that keeps employees fit during work from home.
Online Health and Mental Awareness Sessions
The sudden change in lifestyle has significantly affected the mental and physical health of many employees in every enterprise. Working from home and managing household chores or staying indoors for a very long time without any social activities have led to stress or anxiety for many employees. At ThinkPalm, we care about both the minds and physical health of our employees. Our Online Health and Mental Awareness sessions offer employee assistance programs, which provide support for diverse issues that range from stress and depression to child psychology, gynecology and breast cancer awareness.
Addressing the immediate safety and stability concerns helped us ensure the safety of our employees with zero impact to client deliverables. From providing essential resources to taking measures to ensure productivity and creativity during WFH routines, ThinkPalm made sure that employee demands were valued and client requirements were met. A number of our most sought out services this year reflect the increasing importance of analytics, IoT, artificial intelligence, and digital transformation, which comprised a viable portion of the work we did for clients. It only shows us the importance of driving resiliency and business transformation because we live in an uncertain world, and businesses should be ready for whatever comes at them.
With our second week into the New Year, it can be difficult to feel optimistic, when there are still a lot of challenges up ahead. But in a year of unprecedented change, we also feel hopeful, having seen time and time again the power of people to help each other through this crisis, sometimes against all odds. Before we put 2020 behind us, why not take a moment to catch up on a few good reads you may have missed? But before you go, we want to say thank you for being a part of our journey last year. As all of you out there, we too look forward to a hopeful 2021.
Author Bio
Ricky Philip is a content strategist, who has an unparalleled dedication to building productive and engaging website content that attracts traffic and increase search engine rankings. If not typing furiously on his keyboard, Ricky is constantly learning ways to enhance search traffic acquisitions.
