WORKING FROM
HOME:OUR EXPERIENCE
HOW TEKDOC HAS OVERCOME OBSTACLES AND
CONTINUED TO SERVE OUR CLIENTS
Fostering a New “Normal”
WRITTEN BY ALEXA RONSIVALLI
Like so many of our clients, the team at TekDoc solutions has faced the highs, lows, and everything in between during such an unprecedented time in our world. As life has slowly dipped its toes back into a sense of normalcy, we wanted to share with you some insight from the team’s perspective on how this has affected our company as well as our clients over the past few months and likely in the near future.
Each employee was asked a series of quesitons, there were definitely some trends found in the answers.
Question 1: What skills have you been learning?
Most of the team mentioned learning time management, finding the best ways to stay connected virtually, and keeping a routine even while stuck at home. Many
working professionals can likely attest to needing to work in ways they never have before. Working at home, you may feel as though you have all the time in the
world to complete your work/life tasks, so teaching oneself better time management skills is crucial for anyone’s success.
Question 2: How has TekDoc shown that they care about employees’ health and wellness?
Tekdoc’s management team very quickly reassured us that they are here for us and value our opinions on how we best handle the COVID situation at hand. A couple of things that stand out is that we were sent a survey asking us a series of questions regarding how we felt about returning to the office and when we would feel most comfortable. Most of us did not feel the need to return right away as we are wellequipped to work from home and hold the health of everyone around us to a high regard. Additionally, TekDoc is already prepared with extensive amounts of PPE supplies for when we return to our office and while our engineers slowly begin to do client onsite project work again. Now whenever an engineer is scheduled to go onsite to implement a project, it is ensured that the client is on the same page with following a safety protocol we have established. Finally, the company has always and will continue to encourage employees to use their time off, even if it is simply for a mental reset.
Question 3: How has TekDoc invested in you professionally during COVID-19?
During a time where the industry has slowed down a bit, at least in the first few months, professionals have had more time than ever to take a step back and utilize their time for professional development. This is no different at TekDoc. Some employees have been given new project opportunities they may not have had prior such as prepping our office for a safe return or purchasing training programs to further understand software they need to be using day to day. During these past couple of months, leadership’s attention has been directed towards development and coaching. These coaching sessions ultimately trickle down to the other team members, leading to overall company progress.
Question 4: What is working better for you as a result of working from home?
Many members of our team mentioned being able to work more efficiently with less interruptions, not having a commute, which leads to improved energy and additional time in the day we would not usually have. These are all things that most professionals working from home likely experience. Something that stands out at TekDoc is that because we and all our clients had been working from home, it allowed our support team to gain further knowledge and understanding of people’s home office setups. Home offices tend to be setup very differently than corporate offices which leads to different kinds of issues such as remotely connecting to an in-office server, or working off of an old personal laptop because your main work computer is a desktop sitting in the office. These and many other factors have allowed our team to learn new innovative ways for our clients to work from home comfortably and sufficiently.
Question 5: What is not working as well for you as a result of working from home?
While there are many benefits to working remotely, there are of course factors that make it more difficult. Until recently, we were not sending engineers onsite to client’s offices to implement projects. This of course was to protect the safety of everyone; however it was still a challenge being limited to what we could do for our clients. With a safety protocol in place, we now can send engineers onsite strictly for projects that cannot be completed remotely. Another aspect that we have missed is face to face interactions with coworkers and customers. There is something to be said about inperson communication.
Question 6: What is working better for the company’s customers as a result of working from home?
With the strong decrease of client on sites, we have had more engineers available to take helpdesk tickets. This has led to a great improvement in response time. Working from home has also allowed us to connect with our clients on a more personal level as we can all relate to the changes in our world and work life. We have also seen our customers become more confident in their ability to work from home.
Question 7: What is not working well for the company’s customers as a result of working from home?
Unfortunately, projects have had to be delayed as well as the supply chain. We have seen severely pushed out ship dates for hardware which has been tough on our clients if they need something quickly. We have always managed to find alternate solutions in these scenarios. TekDoc employees as well as our clients have also had to share workspaces with family members which can cause disruption in work.
Question 8: What have we stopped doing or started doing that are making processes, procedures, systems, etc. even better?
TekDoc is always reworking internal processes to positively affect the company and our clients. Some changes we have made include, keeping email conversations within our ticketing portal for improved documentation/accountability, holding more internal meetings such as a daily morning huddle, and revising our weekly social hour format to be an open discussion to ask questions to leadership about our company and operations.
Question 9: Have you been asked to take on new responsibilities while working from home?
Some key responsibilities that have been added are writing policy documents, client offboarding, management of the helpdesk, and leading more internal meetings.
Question 10: What are some things that you have done to your own workspace that have made it work well for you?
Many of us have dedicated a room in the house where it is quiet and we can take calls. Most employees have also been setup with multiple screens for improved efficiency, some have even purchased a standing desk for better comfort level. Everyone has created their own way to be setup for success in a less conventional workspace.
Question 11: What things are the most challenging for you in working from home?
The biggest pattern I saw in everyone’s answers was staying focused. Being at home opens up the door to many different distractions, whether it be your kids being home and needing to assist them with school or the temptation of the kitchen being so close by that has you feeling distracted. These are certainly common and I think as we have gotten used to this new routine, a lot of these challenges have become less troublesome.
As mentioned earlier, here at TekDoc we are experiencing similar trials and tribulations as many others in the same scenario. At the end of the day, we all strive toward a common goal which is to maintain transparency with each other and our clients, adapt to our changing work environment, and staying safe. While this was a challenge to adjust to in the beginning, slowly but surely we are becoming better because of it. We are here for our clients as they adjust every step of the way