The year spent with the coronavirus reminded us of numerous pandemic-themed films and inspired thousands of funny memes and anecdotes in Russians. For example, one of the jokes goes something like this: "Does your family also have someone you don't mind working in your office?"
During this time, we really got used to remote control. And some even began to enjoy it (if you have a comfortable house in the Moscow region with the Internet, it's not difficult, believe me). So make yourself comfortable. Let's talk about how long this will last and whether we will one day return to our usual office life.
In 2014, according to the calculations of J'son & Partners Consulting , the number of remote workers in Russia was 2.5 million. According to the Ministry of Labor of the Russian Federation, in November 2020, the number of remote employees exceeded 3.7 million. This is about 6.5% of the total working-age population of the country.
The largest share of remote workers is concentrated in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Predictable, right? By the way, experts are confident that after the end of the pandemic, about 30% of office workers will never return to their previous work schedule.
Retail, go home!
Last spring, after the self-isolation regime was announced, 98% of our office employees switched to remote work within 3 days. At the same time, the entire system continued to work uninterruptedly in 24/7 mode.
March 2020 was one of the toughest months in terms of social restrictions. In order to avoid fines from the state and to maintain good spirits and good mood among employees, we have taken many steps, which we will gladly tell you about.
As soon as shopping was a thing of the past, people started spending money online (what else could you do while sitting at home all day?). Therefore, we turned most of M.Video and Eldorado stores into online order pick-up points, mini-warehouses or cell phone stores, postponing the usual trading option until better times.
One of our main values in our work is a good team. We tried to keep it completely, although it was not easy (the company's retail staff exceeds 25 thousand people). Our main task was to make sure that all employees continued to feel confident against the background of the beginning of the rise in unemployment and the closure of a number of companies and establishments. For this, an anti-crisis strategy was developed very quickly.
As it turned out, quarantine is a great time for bold decisions and new opportunities. The employees who temporarily stopped working in stores were happy to accept the offer to try their hand at new divisions, for example, in the contact center and courier delivery. And one more solution was, without exaggeration, unique - we agreed on the temporary employment of our people in other companies.
Work that supports
Unfortunately, the pandemic has dealt a blow not only to people's health, but also to the state of the economy in Russia and other countries. Deteriorating financial situation, many restrictions, loss of the usual way of life have become a cause for alarm among millions of people around the world. For our part, we have tried to keep our employees feeling confident in the future and to support them where necessary.
In the context of the rapid increase in morbidity, we have introduced additional life and health insurance so that each member of our team can receive the necessary medical care. Material support for people facing coronavirus was also a pleasant addition. This made it easier to cope with these unpleasant events.
Anyone could turn to the round-the-clock telemedicine line free of charge to discuss their well-being with the doctors or consult with a psychologist, while maintaining an optimistic attitude and efficiency.
And we would also like to thank the pandemic for expanding the boundaries in the head under conditions of quarantine. We were able to take a fresh look at the organization of our business and realize that the usual boundaries between office and retail, home and work, online and offline are a simple convention.
The rapid restructuring of internal processes, the launch of new services for customers and the reallocation of the load taking into account the rapid growth of the share of online sales turned out to be a very exciting experience. All that remains is to make friends with the robots.
Now most companies are slowly returning to their normal operating mode, but we are in no hurry to say goodbye to the solutions we have found and the unusual experience gained during this time. The pandemic helped M.Video-Eldorado Group to create and master a hybrid mode of operation. We realized that telecommuting can become an additional competitive advantage in the fight for talented and demanded employees, regardless of their physical location.
Three modes to choose from
Today M.Video-Eldorado office employees can choose one of three modes of operation, depending on their preferences, capabilities and peculiarities of work. Each team determines the format of interaction and the most convenient pace independently, together with its leader:
Complete remote work. We provide our employees with everything they need to work from home. At the same time, he can visit the office, if necessary.
Hybrid mode. The employee works both from home and in the office according to an agreed schedule. The manager helps to create a work schedule.
Office work. There is some work that cannot be done remotely. In this case, employees continue to work in their normal office hours.
Now about 60% of our colleagues work from home, wrapped in cozy blankets. Another 20% of employees from time to time put the blanket aside and come to visit us. And 20% of the team prefer the classics and work in the office.
Why do people choose "remote"?
- You do not need to waste time on the way back and forth (sometimes it is more than 4 hours a day) and pushing in crowded transport (admit that traffic jams and the cost of parking in the capital often do not leave us time and opportunities to purr our favorite songs while driving on the way to work). But the extra 2-4 hours a day significantly increases our standard of living, increasing our chances of getting to the gym, reading a long-purchased book, or just going to bed early. A trifle, but nice.
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Why does the company choose remote location?
There is a widespread belief among employees that employers are not very fond of remote work, because they believe that everyone who works from home is a bum. But this is not the case. We are interested in creating remote workplaces because:
- "Remote" allows us to reduce our administrative and business expenses (rent and maintenance of offices, travel expenses, etc.) by up to 50%
- If you are the one we need, but you live in another city, we will definitely be able to agree on everything
- Not having to wake up at 8 a.m. when the alarm rings magically affects many employees, transforming them from talented and #cobedeffective to very talented and super-efficient.
Delete cannot be left
Of course, in connection with the transition to telecommuting, some of our colleagues faced predictable and typical difficulties:
Lack of ready equipped workstations.
To solve this problem, we provided everyone with laptops. Those who wished were given the opportunity to work on their PCs through the corporate network. In addition, employees took home work chairs, monitors and other trophies from their office life;
Lack of operational information and technical support in the workplace.
Here we actively used the corporate social network " EM.Life". She became the liaison between the company and remote employees. Thanks to her, everyone who works from home can use any corporate services except for a coffee maker, of course (take a vacation, sick leave, undergo training, book a workplace in the office, track the progress of achieving goals, and much more). There we share news and discuss all relevant topics.
Low internet speed when several users are accessing at once.
We compensated for the cost of equipping home workstations, including connecting to high-speed Internet.
Psychological pressure and isolation from society and teams (it is necessary to reorganize the work).
To solve this problem as quickly and efficiently as possible, we have involved a number of training companies and experts in maintaining physical and psychological health. They helped us create our own employee activity program. Now, three times a year, my colleagues and I become participants in the health maintenance marathon. And physical activity is best combined with pleasant communication.
Remembering the popular ChatRoulette at one time, we launched the “random Zoom” format, in which employees could meet and get to know each other online, communicating on various abstract topics. It turns out that among the neighbors on the floor or department, you can find an excellent company for riding bicycles or watching your favorite anime!
Numerous master classes also contributed to a closer acquaintance with each other: playing the guitar, basics of a product approach, yoga, etc. And for those who were tired and wanted to handle it, we held webinars and seminars with psychologists who helped to cope with professional burnout and improve their stress resistance skills.
To make life better and more fun, we have formulated simple and effective rules for working and interacting with each other at a distance - "EM Power" . It turned out to be easy to follow them, but the culture of behavior in the new reality has risen to a completely new level, saving most of us from unanswered emails, unexpected pictures in Zoom and other emerging questions.
During the pandemic, our fellow recruiters also learned how to work remotely. Interviews with candidates, all kinds of tests, take place online. Our team is always happy to welcome new passengers on board.
For those who are just planning to join the staff , we have launched preonboarding - the future employee receives all the necessary information materials (policies, labor regulations, code of ethics, salary project of his favorite bank, etc.). The introduction of the EDI system and digital signature also made working life more convenient.
The pandemic has significantly expanded the geography of staff recruitment. Now our capabilities allow us to issue work equipment to employees living anywhere in the country. Today we are ready to accept talented programmers, product managers and analysts from almost anywhere in the world into our ranks.
One of the relevant and very convenient innovations will be the expansion of the functionality of the EM Life portal for management, which will allow literally with one button to activate internal services, fill out the necessary applications and requests (issue equipment, connect to internal systems, form work schedules, etc.). Internal interaction of employees will be based on chat bots and group conversations.
Meanwhile, the company continues to implement anti-epidemic measures, including regular testing at the expense of the company, voluntary vaccinations, maintaining social distance and sanitary regime.
Place for discussion
New realities force businesses to look for a non-standard approach in their work and rethink many familiar options and phenomena, for example, the functions of office spaces.
We have accepted the challenge posed by the circumstances and are actively working on a large project to transform office spaces. The main task is to ensure active and successful cooperation of all teams and departments of the company, regardless of their mode of operation and location. It doesn't matter where you are: sitting in the office, working from home or combining one with the other. You will be comfortable anyway.
Therefore, our new office, which will be built closer to the fall of this year, will implement all modern technological solutions in the field of digitalization of space and organization of the workflow.
What does a high-tech office look like?
Entrance biometrics
Leave your work pass at home and just smile at the camera. Our identification database will recognize you by your face and check your health status by analyzing current anti-epidemic data, including PCR tests).
"Coworking" module on the EM.Life portal for booking office workstations and the necessary resources for employees in a hybrid mode of work. Do you want to sit at your favorite table by the window, organize a department meeting, or drive to the office? No problems. Just complete an online application.
Automatic process of scheduling work schedules of various teams
You can be sure that your colleagues will be in touch at the right time.
Real-time feedback system for assessing employee satisfaction from internal customers (monitoring the quality of cross-functional interaction). Mutual understanding and feedback will become the basis for successful and effective cooperation, and ideas and suggestions will definitely be heard.
Ideal employer wanted!
Tell me, is it important for you to choose a classic or remote mode of operation? What determines your choice of a potential employer?
We want to be the best and we hope that you will help us with this. Please take a few minutes for us to take part in the anonymous survey: “The Ideal Employer ”.
With the help of this survey, our company expects to bring together all points of view on the organization of work processes in IT and determine the key trends in the development of the market.
Follow the link to find a short survey of 9 simple questions... Share your point of view. Your feedback is very valuable to us. We would be glad to have your comments on this article. Thank you for your attention.
PS We still need talented programmers. If you need interesting and creative work, write to us as soon as possible !