Pray all of you, and your near and dear ones are fine and healthy.
“It Is Not the Strongest of the Species that Survives but the Most Adaptable.” Charles Darwin. This is our time to act — with love and courage, with empathy and compassion. This is how we all began our WFH (work from home mode in mid March) keeping in mind what Charles Darwin said- Adapt!
“This is an unmatched time in our history. The epidemic is having an impact on the health of our communities, the businesses we rely upon, the health of the global economy, and the way we live our daily lives. As we all continue to navigate through these unique and evolving challenges, I want you to know that we are there for one another. We share our strengths with each other and move ahead slowly and steadily. I hope you have managed to find some rhythm in your daily routine and are being able to strike a balance between fitness, self-development and daily work.” The second email sent out by Prashant, CEO, Puretech Digital. He has made it a point to over-communicate and stay in touch with all Puremates (that is how we refer to all the people working with us) Religiously, there is a mail from him every Friday evening to the entire company with his thoughts, beliefs and to strike a chord with everyone.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed human lives in more ways than one. Apart from social distancing and personal hygiene, the virus has caused individuals, communities, organisations, even countries to re-think on their principles, whether family, home, work, social, all across.
In a bid to fight Coronavirus and stop its spread, India declared a nation-wide lockdown which still continues, after 7 weeks. To that end, organisations have had to re-structure their business models. SMEs especially have been vulnerable to the ripple effect of business and economic slowdown.
The first response to stay in business was to initiate work-from-home protocols and guidelines. Seasoned digital marketing firm Puretech Digital was one of the first few to make this transition, right from 17th March. Employees’ health and safety have always been the senior management’s top priority. Moreover, every Puremate adapted smoothly and quickly to working from home, since two of Puretech’s offices had to move to work from home since mid-March.
“We didn’t let the ball drop even for half a day! We have been effective from day one and I was really impressed. All members of our respective teams collaborated so well together as they are sitting in the office together; everyone has been so committed. And yet they were also so keen to get back to work”, said Prashant Deorah, CEO.
A day before India announced the national lockdown, Puretech ran a one-day technical trial run with over 90 employees for its WFH systems. The aim was to analyse sustainability and gaps in infrastructure if any so swift action could be taken to resolve them. The company ensured that all team members had access to shared files, daily planners and other necessary documents. All-in-all, the firm had a productive, integrated project and workflow management system in place. For establishing a reliable two-way communication system (internally and with clients),the company started to primarily apps like Microsoft Teams.
However, Puretech’s move to move entirely online to cloud-based integrated processes had been in the works long before the COVID-19 outbreak. The company has always been using cloud-based platforms like MS Office suite of products. With such a pre-existing and sophisticated infrastructure, the transition to a completely work-from-home-enabled framework was pretty straight and smooth. Even now, employees can seamlessly plan, collaborate, and deliver digital marketing programs and campaigns on time.
Puretech will continue using project planning tools which has all the right functionalities in one place and which is adaptable to working remotely. Prashant adds, “We are working hard and taking care of everything possible to maintain good health and safety of our teams and we will be continuing to deliver our work,our endeavour is also to facilitate a balanced day for our Puremate between project work, their own passions, family commitments and more than anything good health for which time has to be allocated to inner and outer wellness.”
Puretech, like other offices in India, understands the gravity of the pandemic situation. Every employee is playing his or her part in being responsible in helping curb the outbreak. But it’s not all work at the company; the teams hold in-house recreational activities so that everyone can have fun too. From quizzes to Tambola, the employees get to interact with colleagues they’re missing. Taking the fun initiative one step further, Puretech even launched the #MindfulMay series.
This unique activity aims at knowledge-sharing and skill-enhancement. Every week an employee gives a 30 to 45 minutes webinar on something he or she is familiar with and is an expert. Senior management at Puretech feels that the lockdown is a great time to not only stay productive but also for employees to learn something new, build their core skills, tool skills and soft skills.
Though the future of the outbreak is uncertain, there is still a need for businesses to continue being productive. We will continue to strive and do our best so this also passes. We are happy to share any experiences we may had which could benefit others and learn from others so together we get better at what we are doing. Please stay safe and take care of yourself.
Authored by Kamaljit Saini, Sr. VP- Digital Marketing, Puretech Digital.
