Four Things We Learned from Remote Work in 2020 & 2021
Though many of us expected things will be back to normal after the unpredictable changes 2020 brought, it looks like one thing that’s here to stay is remote work.
From day 1, we at Proxiad have been devoted to our teammates’ safety and implemented a remote work policy that allows them to perform their duties out of harm’s way.
March 2022 will mark two years since our team has been working remotely and we’ve had plenty of time to reflect on everything that’s happened and what the best way ahead is. Here’s what we’ve learned so far:
Our teammates feel more productive when given the choice of where to work from
It goes without mentioning that remote work’s biggest advantage is giving our employees the freedom to control their exposure to other people and take safety precautions that protect their health and that of the people around them. But it also brings some additional pros: people feel more productive both at work and beyond. At Proxiad, we saw this as well after the initial shock from the lockdown – at some point in the summer, our own employees started reporting that they feel a lot more productive and that they’ve had the opportunity to better structure their time now. It makes sense – for a lot of us who live in big cities, just making it to work could mean spending an hour or so in traffic every day.
“The main advantage of remote work is the opportunity to balance work and personal matters better, save time from commuting that I could otherwise spend doing something more pleasant, like reading a book. I have the flexibility needed to organize my workday so that it fits lifestyle better.” – Anna Chervenkova, Senior Recruitment Business Partner
Remote work opens new horizons
We saw a great benefit to practically universal remote work – our team expanded beyond the realms of Sofia and Plovdiv where our offices are located, and now we have colleagues in more than seven additional locations who will continue to work remotely as long as they would like. As a result, most of our job postings are open to candidates all across Bulgaria and they will remain this way.
It’s best to pay extra attention to employee wellbeing and company culture
The pandemic, coupled with remote work, brought feelings of anxiety and social isolation to many of us. Mental health is an important, sometimes forgotten, aspect of our overall health and to us, it seemed imperative that we help address these issues. One of the first things we did was add an additional service to our employer-sponsored health plan that covers psychotherapy. Then, together with our Happy Team of volunteers, we created additional events and initiatives that helped us keep the team spirit up and make sure that everyone feels a sense of belonging.
In the summer of 2020, we started our ProxiSummer Camp initiative which brings different colleagues together and they get to spend a week working at the Bulgarian seaside. Maria Marinova from our SAP Ariba team shared, “Our stay and the whole ProxiSummer Camp initiative were incredible. [Proxiad] really helped me and my colleagues create wonderful memories and experience great moments together.”
At the end of 2021, our team of volunteers created a virtual coffee initiative that introduced people from different teams to one another for them to enjoy a coffee together. Our colleagues greatly enjoyed meeting one another and chatting about movies, books, and their hobbies. This has been a part of a conscious effort on our side to use digital communication channels to better maintain the Proxiad spirit that exists outside of work, too. We created new groups to gush over our pets, share volunteer activities that people could join, a movie & TV show discussion group, and even our very own .NET community!
We’ve made it a goal to preserve our community spirit here at Proxiad, and these are just some of the many initiatives that we’ve introduced to keep the flame going.
Flexibility is integral to success
If there’s one thing the pandemic taught us, it’s that being adaptive is the most important quality a company can have. We will remain flexible and devoted to giving our teammates the opportunity to choose where they work from.
“The opportunity to work remotely that Proxiad provides us with shows deep trust in its employees. I think it demonstrates how much we value people here.” – Todor Sotirov, EDI Specialist
For those of us who prefer to work from the office nonetheless, we’ve made sure to provide a safe environment in both our locations – Sofia and Plovdiv. In fact, back in 2021, when the future seemed even more uncertain, we made a huge change by moving to a brand-new office space in Sofia.
We decided to completely abandon the traditional ‘everyone has their very own desk’ approach and an idea was born: we created and implemented our own in-house hot desking system called Desk Buddy that lets our employees reserve a workspace, a conference room, and/or a parking spot for when they plan to be at the office. Learn more about hot desking and office hoteling.
In conclusion,
For the past two years, we haven’t let unfavorable circumstances get us down. Instead, we did our best to adapt, transform, and readjust. As a result, 2021 was our most successful year yet and our whole team’s seamlessness and support for each other was a huge factor.
Would you like to join our team? Explore our latest remote job opportunities:
