With the recent onset of the coronavirus pandemic, companies around the world are making significant changes to the way they do business. In-office work, face-to-face meetings, lunches and happy hours with colleagues, and site visits are all on hold for the time being.
During this time of immense uncertainty and social distancing, we at BrandActive are doing our best to support one another. We’re leaning on our organization’s culture to support our team and positively impact our clients.
We wanted to share what we are doing to stay connected during the coronavirus pandemic in the hopes that it might be an encouragement to you and your organization.
Trust, agility, and growth: The BrandActive culture
BrandActive has been in business for more than twenty years. In that time, we’ve been privileged to work with many wonderful organizations around the globe — and forge a strong, intentional culture within our organization along the way.
We have been able to respond resiliently to the sudden changes brought on by the coronavirus thanks in large part to the strong internal culture we’ve long cultivated and nourished.
Several years ago, BrandActive’s leadership put together a statement reflecting and formalizing our corporate culture. This statement elevates three key values that drive how we do business: trust, agility, and growth.
Our three cultural pillars apply to the enterprise at large and to each individual within it. They inform everything from how we do business and who we do business with to our personal development plans, annual “big splash” company outings, and our commitment to giving back to the broader community.
4 ways we are staying engaged with our community during COVID-19
During this unusual time, BrandActive is taking several steps to keep the lines of communication open, foster a sense of togetherness, and support our local communities. These include:
- Frequent check-ins from the leadership team. Beginning the first day our staff shifted to a distributed, work-at-home model, BrandActive’s leadership team began sending daily email check-ins. These emails kept the entire staff abreast of updates and changes, offer tips for staying connected, and even to share virtual workouts and personal anecdotes. The initial frequency of these messages ensured that our entire team remained on the same page — and kept the lines of communication open. After several weeks operating under the new model, the frequency of communication is closer to twice a week, and includes e-mails and company-wide town halls. This is especially critical at a time when we aren’t able to work together in the same place.
- Local gift cards. The social distancing measures we must all take in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus are taking a heavy toll on local businesses like restaurants, barber shops, bookstores, and gift shops. In a show of support for our local communities, BrandActive is reimbursing all employees for the purchase of gift cards from local businesses. This measure is intended to “treat” staffers while also supporting small businesses.
- Weekly trivia contests. With so many people sheltering in place at home, social connectivity is more important than ever. In order to give our team a much-needed outlet to socialize together, we’re holding weekly trivia nights. During these virtual events, our staff breaks into teams and competes in a themed trivia contest. Interested in grabbing a set of trivia questions and conducting a virtual contest with your team? Here are the questions we used in our recent science-themed trivia contest.
- Using the webcam to connect during virtual meetings. We’ve encouraged our people to turn on their camera during internal and client meetings in an effort to promote human connection, and our people have embraced this practice. Team members who don’t want to fuss about their hair when working from home simply don hats.
BrandActive’s cultural foundation guides us now as we navigate this unprecedented and deeply troubling event. It seem that our tolerance has increased and we’re giving each other the benefit of the doubt. Teams are giving a hand to each other more often and leaning in for support. The silver lining to this unfortunate situation is this deepening human interactions among our team.
We will continue to explore ways to be in touch and take care of one another in the face of this crisis, and we hope you will do the same.
