Nov 30, 2020

New ways for cooperation in the Covid 19 era
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Covid 19 keeping our world in suspense since this spring has entailed many changes - not only in our private and social lives, but also in our working environments. One of them is the chance to work from home, which has been allowing a great number of our employees to continue their work.

We asked them about their individual home office experience and how they feel about it: 


"In international sales, you often work “from remote” on business trips to different countries. So, to me it wasn’t such a big surprise that cooperation works also when being in the home office. Topics of every-day business, for example, are often discussed more calmly and with a stronger focus via Skype than in the open-plan office. On the other hand, the missing eye contact in team meetings and conversations with customers and sales partners makes interpretation of non-verbal reactions difficult. 

I think home office work is an opportunity to increase a company’s efficiency. It offers more flexibility to employees for working on a topic more concentratedly, without being distracted by what’s going on in the office.

At the same time, however, we face the challenge of redefining our communication and allowing even more personal responsibility and freedom of work towards employees. To ease online team collaboration we have been relying on ever-increasing interactive, visual communication.

The biggest challenge, however, is to foster online social contacts and team spirit."


Managing Director Baumer International


 
"To me, home office is not a problem at all, since I do not necessarily require direct company contact for my work.  I have my own office room at home, allowing me to draw clear lines under aspects of work space and time. To me, this is crucial to fully concentrate on my work. Thanks to modern IT infrastructure with corresponding tools there is a consistently smooth exchange with the colleagues at work.

I even think home office work is more efficient because there is less distraction. However, I miss the face-to-face exchange with the team and colleagues - the Covid 19 era has been proving that this should not be underestimated".


The Responsible for working time and remuneration 



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Right at the beginning of the Covid 19 era, Baumer reacted promptly by taking actions to curb the spread – and home office work was key here.

Since the international product marketing teams spread over several locations, we had already been used to online meetings. Therefore, home office work wasn’t a major obstacle neither to me nor my colleagues.

The implementation of local hygiene concepts, for example shifted meal times in the canteen and seats in zigzag arrangement have made everyone feeling well protected.

At the beginning, the entire Covid 19 situation was difficult to grasp and the weekly updates by the Management on how to handle it were really helpful".


Product Marketing Manager



The Covid 19 era has been boosting digital collaboration across workplaces, locations and borders. Supported by the open-mindedness of our employees, by creating the appropriate framework conditions and intelligent software solutions, we benefit from the situation as an opportunity to further intensify cooperation, to strengthen digital collaboration paths and to use upcoming changes for pushing forward an agile organization.
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