Read on for successful strategies and practices we’ve found to collaborate remotely, give back to our community, and bond as a team – all while following COVID-19 safety protocols.
Making the transition of working in the same building as your team, to employing social distancing practices and working remotely is a game-changer. Fortunately, our team has found ways to adapt and continue to work collaboratively. Beyond providing our employees with gifts to ensure that their work from home environment is one that they can thrive in, we’ve managed to grow together as a team (while 6+ feet apart), and even find new ways to give back.
Our team members took the opportunity to grow in their knowledge of themselves and each other through our recent 16 Personalities test and socially distanced team activity! Successful collaboration requires understanding. When people employ their personality traits throughout a lifetime, experience makes them perform better using their own styles. Learning to discover, appreciate, and utilize these specific “superpowers” at work can make the team stronger.
As a certified “Green Business Innovator” we have a community service policy that incorporates volunteerism into employee duties and pay. We do this to acknowledge the interconnected nature of environmentalism and social equity, both of which are themes that we’ve seen brought to the forefront of public attention this year. The demand for volunteer work from nonprofits has not decreased with the pandemic, and accordingly many NGO’s have implemented COVID-19 safety protocols to keep volunteers safe and to keep their efforts going.
Our Oniracom team recently opted for a socially distanced beach cleanup through Santa Barbara Channelkeeper’s Watershed Brigade program. We’ve also recently volunteered together at Pacific Pride Foundation, and our executive team has been donating their professional business services to organizations including Kokua Hawaii Foundation, Community Environmental Council (CEC), Heal The Ocean, and The Grace Fisher Foundation.
We’ve found ways to engage in monthly team building activities including a socially distanced picnic at the Mission Rose Garden, and outdoor Halloween movie night in our Oniracom office parking lot. We’ve also engaged in fully virtual events such as a live-streamed festivals and concerts, and even a surprise “special guests” at our weekly meetings.
Since our company’s beginnings, we’ve prided ourselves on being quick to adapt – often leading the charge for innovation at the forefront of emerging technology and new trends. The global pandemic brought with it changes unlike any we’d seen, but we’re incredibly proud of our team’s ability to once again, adapt and thrive amid changing and unfamiliar conditions. As Oniracom enters its 20th year as a business, we’re grateful to continue creating a culture of positive disruption, and are eagerly looking forward to what comes next.
