Business during crisis – it’s ‘employees first” for us

Category

Blogs

Author

Wissen Team

Date

April 28, 2023

Amidst COVID-19, historical records of 22 million unemployment claims are being made in the US. Fear looms large.

While most businesses are talking about reducing resources, we have been on a different path at Wissen.

April, the month when most organizations froze their hiring plans, was the month when we did our highest hiring. We will continue to hire in the coming months.

Along with increasing our recruitment, our existing employees also have got all their well-deserved hikes as planned.

We have been able to sustain, grow and reward our employees.

In retrospect, when I think about what worked for us, here are a few things that come to mind.

Sustained business 

Our business is not impacted due to the pandemic. We work on critical systems and projects. Our projects have a crucial impact on the client’s business and are used by them to retain their clients and grow their business.

Our cash flow has been steady owing to the nature and design of our work and its impact on the client business. With business continuing as usual, clients trusting us with their work, and strong cash flow, there is no reason to not reward employees for their hard work.

Consistent, high-quality output

Another reason why we continue to grow is because of the quality of our work. Our clients are receiving the same quality of work, collaboration, and information, even when all of us are working remotely.

Our technologists have been working exceptionally well from their respective homes. And I think it is mainly because of the caliber of our team.

Our rigorous selection process ensures that we hire exceptional technologists who can work independently, are invested in their work, are hands-on with technology, and need no monitoring. Each of our technologists is highly accountable and has a high degree of ownership.

Our senior management team consists of technologists who are there to help the employees alleviate, manage, or respond to any challenge they experience while adjusting to this new normal.

Proactive feedback collection

Our team managers have been proactively talking to clients to understand if they are experiencing any issues because of our new mode of working.

The initial feedback we received is very positive and encouraging. Many of our clients even told us that they found us “ahead of the curve” and in complete control of the work situation. As the lockdown continues to extend, we intend to make the feedback-gathering process more frequent. Instead of having a quarterly session with our clients, we now aim to connect with them monthly so that we can improve continuously and proactively address their needs.

Adaptable teams

Our employees are doing a fantastic job adjusting to the remote work environment. Along with their technical prowess, this is also because of our organizational culture. A flat organizational culture has ensured that our employees are groomed to work independently.

We have always focused heavily on creating responsible and adaptable teams – this gives them the capacity to adjust to new surroundings and situations fast and comfortably. We have been anal about hiring only those people whose high technological proficiency could be complemented with an equally high work ethic.

By hiring the right people and putting the right tools in place, we made sure that we could tide through this crisis.

Conclusion

Working from home may not be the ideal work environment for many. It has more than its share of challenges.

We knew that there was very little that we, as a company, could do about these things – so we decided to manage what was in our control. Instead of adding to the worries and fear of our people in the form of delayed hikes and paused hiring, it was time to reward them for their hard work.

Health, financial, and job security are huge concerns for employees presently as news of economic slowdown, and layoffs loom large. In this environment, the onus is on us to look out for our employees and build a high-trust culture.

We firmly believe that our people have helped us stay afloat comfortably during these challenging times. Over the past few years, we have made conscious efforts to hire and groom the best-in-class technologists from the industry, and I believe all those efforts are paying off now.

We are in this together, and I am confident that we will emerge as winners!