Write code with masks: SciPlay employees. Source: SciPlay
The national and global emergency has already become a new routine, even in the high-tech industry. The race for recruitment, brainstorming, and upgrading the employee experience that are the key challenges in working with HR departments these days is becoming increasingly challenging in light of the new situation. We talked to some experienced HR executives to understand how conservators work remotely, were recruits completely frozen and how to maintain sanity in high-tech companies during the Corona?
A special budget for completing home-based work equipment
“Until recently, we were working in offices, and we were acting as usual while adhering to the Ministry of Health guidelines,” says Efrat Yadlin, Internal Communication Specialist at Harman. Yadlin says that the impact was felt mainly by the isolation the employees had when they returned from overseas travel and welfare events that were hit like a Purim party, canceling the weekly Happy Hour and freezing volunteer projects.
Indeed, the first and immediate phase of the new situation was the move to work from home. For a large number of companies, it is a matter of routine even in healthier times, others have invested quite a bit in adapting the home’s work environment to their needs: “We sent all the equipment from the home office to create as comfortable a work environment as possible – screens, keyboards, mice and so on. “, Says Adi Kenneth, a recruiter at Armis. This seemingly simple move turned out to be particularly smart as reports of laptops shortages in various computer stores were released in recent days due to the demand for work from home.
Other companies, such as SISENSE, for example, have allocated money to employees, which will allow them to organize the appropriate technology environment for them, with the understanding that physical conditions are only the tip of the iceberg for employees’ needs and the effort that companies make to meet those needs. “We have trained employees and executives on effective home-based work, involving hundreds of employees from around the world,” says Arielle, Head of OD & People Programs at the company. “Besides, the CEO sends a weekly video to all employees with updates so everyone knows what’s going on.” .
Continue routine or not?
On the question of maintaining the routine, it is evident that the different companies adhere to 2 concepts: some of the workplaces believe in maintaining a routine, making sure to work at the same regular hours and even having the weekly happy hour at regular intervals. Other jobs, on the other hand, feel the time is just the opposite: “Working from home requires flexible schedules. There is no longer a set day for a work day that starts at a certain time and ends at a certain time – work is around the clock, when you have to juggle between finding employment for children, conversations with the United States, home operation and preparation for the closure, and preparing a tidy and adapted work environment from home. It’s not easy, “says Maayne Eisener Rosman, VP of SciPlay Human Resources.
Either way, companies’ aspiration for the professional aspect is to minimize their schedule and meet professional goals. “We still see productivity in our employees’ work and do not see a significant change in the level of doing,” says Liat Gabrieli Schwartz, Director HR & Global Talent Acquisition at Fyber, which develops mobile ad technologies. But the professional aspect is just one part of the picture. “Conversations with employees seem to be the main difficulty at the moment is the lack of social office experience. The employees miss the office and the family atmosphere in the company, but the work itself can be done from home as well. ”
Daniel Tabin Rotem, HRBP at Radis Labs Israel, also says that the main challenges facing her during this period are, for the most part, the social and emotional dimension: “How do you continue to make a connection when everyone is in their home? How can you continue to work normally during such a stressful period, with children at home? ‘She asks. The solution the company has found is based on the existing means. “We maintain personal connections and make a connection through the Slack on the local channel with daily pictures, tools for quality work from home, opening a group to the parent community where various content is transmitted for activities with children, tips and the like,” says Daniel.
The food budget went to donation, Plaetica. Photo: PR
Move to Zoom
The main challenge facing the high-tech companies during this period is the challenge of connection and sense of belonging. One of the ways in which many companies are attacking these challenges is excess communication, over communication. “There is a significant increase in communication at all levels to ensure a sense of belonging and commitment while working remotely and to answer questions and concerns,” says General Motors Israel’s human resources manager Neta Kanza. “Global management holds daily update calls regarding crisis in various forums, local management holds an update call each morning, and the HR department issues a daily update to all employees at the same time as an open line for employee response.”
At GONG, HR manager Ayelet Heiferman says that the CEO of the company makes sure to update all company employees on developments in the business arena as well as in the operation arena, in a weekly update. Heiferman says employees feel involved and up-to-date and this right – more relaxed.
Janet Brezner of the overwolf gaming company says that the frequency of meetings has also been increased for them in the company, which of course took place at a distance. “The goal is that all employees feel they are part of the work and stay connected and up to date.” Jana adds that the gaming industry is under the guidance of staying in homes, an increase in users: “Now that everyone is home, in Israel and abroad, people are playing more computer games.”
The Giminig domain is not alone. In the field of e-commerce, too, the work continues as a series and the volume of activity is also increasing. “The online commerce industry is on the cusp of sales and services, which are a must-have from the physical world to the online world,” says Orit Rappaport, VP People, Global & General Manager at Forter Israel. “Since our main activity is to protect against fraud and theft in online commerce, we are in any case working on gas to continue to provide our customers with the protection they need.”
Products that enable customers to work remotely, such as GONG’s product, which specializes in remote sales management, continue to experience demand and companies like Harman, where they work with carmakers on long-term projects, report that Business is operating normally.
Zoom team meeting, Porter.
Continue to recruit, switch to video calls
Contrary to the general atmosphere and the removal of various high-tech workers to the USSR, quite a few companies think about the day after the crisis and continue their efforts to recruit employees. “SciPlay as a gaming company continues to grow regularly and recruit new employees according to the demand for our games, which is consistently rising,” says Rosman. “The company can continue to work from home just as usual, so we are not afraid to recruit these days as well.” Also Armis, It was recently sold for $ 1.1 billion, Continue to operate as usual in terms of work plans and recruitment despite the general uncertainty. “All job interviews went on zooming in and we made sure to adjust the professional tests that are usually conducted in offices so that candidates can solve them as home exams,” Kenneth says.
Fyber also says that the hiring and hiring processes for new hires continue: “As a tech company whose customers are app developers, our operations are not affected. We continue to recruit all of our global offices especially for the R&D and sales department, ”says Gabrieli Schwartz.
Maya Granot, the hiring manager and HRBP at Perion, says that despite the situation, only last week the company absorbed 2 new employees “even though the offices in general are closed and the hand is still slanted.” Also fertility, like all companies that continue to recruit, adapted the processes to the conditions on the ground: “The entire absorption process is done in a virtual way: onboard zooming, delivery by home courier, many telephone calls and the use of technological means.” To support the new reality, the company’s employees took part in the Webinar on Remote Work.
The offices are disfigured. fertility
“Corona recruitment has become challenging”
Beyond conducting the interviews online, the new situation requires further adjustments, as identified in SISENSE. “Remote interviews are also commonplace with us, but here the matter is different and clear to all parties that the situation is far from the ideal situation to be interviewed – the candidates are mentally stressed, everyone’s concentration is poor, in many cases there are children at home, spouses or roommates in the background and a lot of uncertainty “, Says Arieli,” so we allow more flexibility during interview hours (after the kids go to bed or before the partner wakes up) and of course at the time of the assignments and tests. ”
“There is no doubt that recruiting in the shadow of the Corona has become challenging,” says Shani Ernst, general manager of General Motors Israel’s recruiting team. “We use Skype for both the technical interview and the personal interview, and the new technique brings with it challenges that arise from both technical difficulties and the fact that the personal connection so important to us suddenly gets other meanings. We need to find other ways to connect and replace the handshake, the eye look and the hallway calls. ”
The situation is also not ideal on the part of the candidates, probably. “Candidates can no longer walk around the offices, see the work environment and” feel “the corporate culture,” says Shani. Instead of walking around offices and meeting people, they need to rely on their feelings or rely on the information and information that exists on the network.
How do you overcome these challenges anyway? The key, according to Shani, lies in good communication with the candidates and the interviewer team. “You need to provide as much technical information as possible about how to connect, who you meet and tips for connecting right along with” softer “information that can help manage the interviews effectively and pleasantly. Equally important is to equip everyone with a lot of patience. Both the technical parts where the conversation suddenly gets stuck and also the psychological parts. You have to understand that not everyone feels comfortable behind a camera and behaves naturally. ”
keep in touch. SISENSE
Happy hour to dogs and cats too
Alongside, and in fact long before investing in new hiring processes, the companies are all investing resources and efforts for the benefit of existing employees. God, as you know, is in the little things and so is the steady feeling of routine. “At Armis, we opened a dedicated zoom into which company employees can come in to have morning coffee and afternoon coffee together,” Kenneth says. At Fyber, they conducted their first happy hour online with great success with some 70 of the company’s employees in Israel who participated in the kahoot questionnaire and felt together for a while.
A virtual happy hour also took place in fertility, and included an online terrace party, during which employees met in the zoom window, listened to rhythmic songs together and danced during their regular weekly happy hour. “We wanted to create a sense of ‘togetherness’ from afar too, and the reactions from the employees were exciting,” Granot says. “We were all out for a few moments from the new and defeating routine.”
In addition to worrying about the employees, quite a few companies also look after the family members of the employees. Companies like Fyber and Gong make sure to send employees gifts and suggestions for activities with the children and maintain the health routine by exercising remotely. “The gifts we send to employees are now made by local businesses,” says Hiferman. In addition, she says, the company offers ergonomics and pediatric psychologist counseling to employees.
Redis Labs has created online Pilates and Yoga videos to maintain employee wellness routines, and Forter says moving Pilates classes to the Zoom platform also allows employees and children to join the activity. In Fertility, they took a step forward with childcare and launched a 10-day virtual camp for working children.
But creativity and zoom do not stop going for 2. As is well known, most high-tech companies excel in their attitude toward employee dogs as well. “The current crisis brought out the most creative ideas from all of us at Forter,” Rapaport says. As an example, she brings a daily zoom session of the company’s employees’ dogs and cats – an original initiative by one of its employees.
What next?
To date, the end of the crisis is not yet on the horizon. However, the high-tech companies, already ready for the day after and return to the pursuit of the talents, are trying to maintain high standard of morale and employee activity. It’s comforting these days, too.
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