Q&A series about Insider Inc.'s COVID-19 response: Here’s how we prepped our team for the crisis
In early March, leadership at Insider Inc. began communicating with the team about steps and precautions being taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus and stay safe. The People & Culture and Employee Experience teams have been at the forefront of making some of these decisions — communicating information, sharing resources, and supporting employees as they transition to remote work in an unprecedented and uncertain time.
We conducted a (virtual) interview with members of our People & Culture team to learn how they’ve been managing our response to the COVID-19 crisis. In part one of this three-part Q&A series, Margaret Bowani, senior vice president of our People & Culture team, and Melanie Naranjo, director of People & Culture, talk about about the company’s initial response.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
(from left) Nikki Torres, Front Desk Coordinator; Ali Fetzer, Manager, People & Culture; Margaret Bowani, SVP, People & Culture; Melanie Naranjo, Director, People & Culture; MoMo Lamping, Manager of Culture & Employee Experience.
Insider started the conversation about coronavirus precautions and closed the office well before the New York governor issued a stay-at-home order. What was behind those decisions?
Margaret Bowani (MB): As a leadership team, we started talking about the potential impact the virus could have very early on, which gave us time to prepare. Our first contingency plan meeting happened the last week of February, and we walked out of that meeting hoping for the best but prepared to act quickly if needed — so all things considered we got an early start. We were confident at that point that we had what we needed to go fully remote.
Within a couple days of that first meeting it became clear that things were moving very quickly. People were beginning to feel concern, and rightly so — there wasn’t a lot of information coming from authorities. We decided to give all employees the option to work from home if they felt more comfortable doing so, and many employees took us up on that.
A few things happened in quick succession. First, we learned that some employees were having a tough time making that decision, especially more junior staff. We were also seeing that for those who went remote, the transition was pretty seamless. Outside of the office, many of the cities where we have offices (New York, San Francisco, Boston, London) were getting hit pretty hard by the virus. It was an easy decision, but not one made lightly, that for the safety of our employees and everyone we interact with, the best thing to do was go fully remote. We made that decision on March 11.
How has the team been working with employees whose jobs require them to be in the physical office?
MB: We have an incredible operations team who keep things running so well for us when we’re in the office. This is a dedicated team of people who add so much value and love their work, so the biggest challenge was: How do we ensure they know how valued they are, so they feel they’re able to contribute even when they’re not working the way they normally would in terms of day-to-day responsibilities? Like any team, we have a wish list of projects that sit on the back burner, so the first thing we did was look at those projects and work with the team to assign them. That worked well.
Within a couple weeks, our subscriptions team was dealing with such an influx of new business that its client success team became overwhelmed and reached out for support. Our operations team was able to jump in, quickly get trained, and get to work helping our clients, win-win!
This has been a great career growth opportunity for anyone who isn’t able to physically perform some office-based tasks. This has allowed them to branch out into different fields and interests, which can help provide new learning experiences in areas they might be interested in pursuing.
How well was Insider Inc. prepared for an indefinite work from home period? What was done well, and what were learning opportunities?
MB: Thanks to our incredible IT team, we were confident that we had the capability to support a fully remote workforce from a technology perspective pretty immediately. Our incredibly nimble and resourceful operations team took the lead on making sure our employees could easily get what they needed from the office to their homes quickly and efficiently. Over the last couple of years we’ve also worked hard on the People & Culture side to automate as many of our HR functions as possible, and that has paid off in spades in the last month — especially for onboarding.
From there we coordinated with department heads and team leads to make sure everything was being considered, and that we were aware of any edge cases and had a plan in place. We were successful because we live our company values — we are effective, SCHAFFFF (smart, conversational, helpful, accurate, fast, fair, fearless, and fun), we’re good eggs, and we communicate well. In this situation, communication and collaboration were the keys to our success. We’ve all leveled up as individuals and as teams as a result of working together in this way.
What types of resources or support have employees been seeking from the team? Has this changed over time?
Melanie Naranjo (MN): We’ve seen a bit of an interesting evolution with respect to employee needs. As time goes on, our employees’ focus has shifted somewhat. There was a lot of excitement and confusion the first week; as a result, the needs were more logistics-related — help navigating slow internet connections, guidance on how to handle candidate interviews, support with onboarding new hires remotely. By week two, the shine had worn off, and people were starting to seek out more long-term support: flexible work schedules, mental health resources, tips for staying focused and energized throughout the day, a friendly face to talk to.
The week two needs haven’t gone away, but as we dive into weeks four, five, and beyond, the focus has shifted outwards. We’ve noticed an increasing desire among our employees to give back to those most severely impacted by COVID-19. It’s been amazing to see us all rally together as a community to give back to those in need.
But it’s important to note that many of our new programs and initiatives would have fallen short had it not been for our employees speaking up and reaching out to us. The fact that our People & Culture team is viewed as a helpful resource uniformly across the organization goes a long way in helping us understand the needs and map out our response. There’s a level of empathy that goes both ways. Our employees understand that we’re all figuring this out together. They trust us and feel comfortable coming to us with questions and concerns because at this most stressful of times, our top priority isn’t the “bottom line.” Our top priority is our employees — their happiness, their safety, their well-being. We make ourselves available, we let them know that we care, and at the end of the day, the relationship that we’ve built is what has allowed us to achieve this level of success in our response to this challenging and uncertain situation.