For most organizations, the first priority was responding to the COVID-19 crisis focusing on health, safety, essential products and services, the virtualization of work processes and remote work where possible. At Nestlé, people are always at the heart of operations and decision-making processes. The company puts the safety of employees and families first. We quickly adapted to the rapidly changing environment and increasing risk level and implemented additional safety measures at our factories, distribution centers, sales force and our head office in Kyiv and Nestlé Business Service center in Lviv. Staff members who can perform their job responsibilities remotely were immediately offered that opportunity and provided with technological support to make it happen. It appeared that 90% of our office staff was able to work remotely and continue to perform their duties from home.
From day one, we understood that constant communication among teams within the organization was crucial, especially when people were taken out of their stable working environment. Nestlé in Ukraine provided employees with various ways to connect: enhanced usage of the internal social media platform Workplace and additional tools for virtual meetings, some of which were rolled out across the organization quickly to support the demand for increased connectivity.
One cannot underestimate communication and bonding during a crisis, especially one with this level of uncertainty and social distancing. Constant communication on business updates and outlooks, health advice, society directed initiatives and expressions of appreciation for our frontline colleagues built bonds and the ability to value the job done by people on your team even more. Also, we trained our managers on leading virtual teams and engaging with employees not just on work-related questions – and that is when we launched our digital coffee initiative. As stress, fatigue and uncertainty build up during the crisis, employees may feel drained and distressed. In order to maintain their healthy spirit, several initiatives were launched — online warmups led by employees at their own initiative and online lectures provided by professionals on stress relief and mindfulness.
During the crisis, we digitalized the recruitment process —all job interviews, skills and language testing, newcomer onboarding and knowledge transfers were conducted online, giving this process a new spin and speed. This spring, new hires have a totally different experience of being introduced to their teams virtually. The new reality drives the speed, but also requires even more effort and attention from line managers to ensure the smooth transition and adaptation of employees in order to further contribute to the company’s success and live the company’s purpose.
This crisis also altered the way internships went this season. It is the first time ever that our interns have experienced a fully digitalized working environment, although as representatives of Generation Z, it went smoothly for them. Our cooperation with universities also moved towards online lectures and trainings on subjects like how to create your resume and pass a job interview in the new fully digitized environment.
Now, as organizations are starting to emerge from the response phase and strengthening their resilience, they are looking to the next step – a move toward the new normal. At Nestlé in Ukraine, we see one of the challenges as the tension between getting back to work and rethinking work as we embrace the new reality of workplaces. We chose the hybrid comeback model: some employees will return to the office in split teams, while others may continue to work remotely to allow much-needed flexibility to balance work and home lives during this difficult time. Office life is not going to be “as usual” because now there are additional safety measures and behavior changes implemented such as: on-site daily health checks and online support with our insurance partner, online meetings, solo lunches and coffee breaks, only contacting your colleagues via digital solutions, segregated commuting, wearing personal protective equipment when unable to keep social distance, split teams when some colleagues might not see each other in person for a long time to ensure that our sites are safe workplaces for everyone.
The recovery process will take some time and we understand that those short talks over coffee or next to the watercooler that helped to share ideas and insights instantly are on hold now, but we are further working on supporting teams with constant connections via internal social media and other digital tools to keep the spirit and connection in our teams. We are optimistic that, while the new normal is the reality of our lives right now, we will have the opportunity in the nearest future to hold big physical events and invite each other for coffee in a common area to discuss ideas and meaningful work.
