One thing we’ve learned from the last few weeks is that changing tides present an opportunity to create the silver lining. What organizations are experiencing due to social distancing and quarantining at a massive scale is unprecedented and difficult to navigate. As we continue pushing forward at Collibra, we’re even more motivated to think critically, plan thoughtfully and emphasize sustainability.
At Collibra, we’re utilizing the current state to implement a few initiatives intended to increase efficiency, support employee engagement and mitigate risk. Once we begin introducing employees back into the office, we aspire to continue with many of these, as we’ve already seen great response and positive results.
Increased communication and support: In late February, Collibra activated its Pandemic Response and Business Continuity teams, who have been regularly monitoring the situation and enacting our policies as needed. Since then, we have increased the cadence of our All Hands meetings to bi-weekly, and have introduced bi-weekly manager briefings to support employees who are leading teams through change.
Pivot to fully digital: We’ve accepted the challenge to go fully digital for all candidate, new hire, customer and partner interactions — from recruiting and employee onboarding, to user groups, community meetups and most notably, our annual Data Citizens conference this June.
Virtual non-work programming: When helping employees manage the mental aspects of COVID-19, it’s not just about providing them with the tools and resources to manage it on their own. A full-time work environment with limited variables can bring on a lot of added stress. To help Collibrians across the globe feel more balanced, we launched four new programs and reimagined one other program to help keep them mentally sound. Each of these activities was born from a Collibrian or two sharing a simple idea.
Collib-reads: One of our newest affinity groups and Slack channels. Every few weeks, a book is chosen based on workplace skills, leadership development, or professional and emotional growth to review and discuss.
Collibra Cooks: The #CollibraCooks Slack channel was created as a way to stay connected during remote work, and to date is one of our most engaged. Employees share recipes, participate in weekly live cooking sessions, and offer daily meal inspiration.
Guided Meditation: Weekly live sessions via Zoom, ranging 5 to 30 minutes, for beginners and experienced meditators alike.
Company-wide Trivia: Bi-weekly, 15-minute trivia games inclusive of eight questions on a broad range of categories including movies, history, science, sports and prizes.
Office Happy Hours: Before we had to quarantine, we hosted regular happy hours for each office. Moving these to Zoom has been a great way to bring everyone together after a long week, inclusive of our fully remote employees.
Employee surveys: Given the fluidity and variety of ways the pandemic can affect our employees, capturing their feedback on their experience and our response is more important than ever. We recently completed our Employee Voice Survey (EVS) and after two weeks, received a 90%+completion rate. The responses detailed in our EVS provided essential insights into how our employees are feeling, especially during times of uncertainty.
We’re hopeful that May will mark the beginning of real considerations as to how and when we get back to the office. Our approach will vary by region and will be guided by the advice of the respective leaders and experts. We acknowledge that going back to “normal” will not be seamless. It will take quite a bit of time, and likely a few adjustments, but for now, we’re glad to be able to highlight some of the positive activity that came from adversity and we’re looking forward to taking this positivity back into our regular schedules — whenever they resume.
