Offices remain empty, but we’re connecting digitally

Entiros' employees have, like so many others, worked from home since the corona pandemic began in spring 2020. This has led to both new insights and new challenges for businesses. In the following interview, Cecilia Angbratt, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Entiros, talks about how the past year has gone and what she expects going forward.

What was Entiros’ approach to remote work before the pandemic?

Our employees had the option to work from home before the pandemic, but it was more occasional or for a specific reason. For example, there were a few employees who worked from home a couple of days a week due to a long commute.

How have recruiting and onboarding of new employees worked remotely?

We are happy to have employed five new people over the past year. Most of the job interviews have taken place digitally, which has worked even better than we expected. This could be because most of the candidates were already used to digital meetings at their previous jobs.

Onboarding of new employees has also gone really well, thanks to clear processes and plenty of planned introduction meetings over video. It’s obviously too bad that we couldn’t meet and welcome the new employees in person, and my colleagues and I are really looking forward to welcoming them to the office as soon as that’s possible again.

What kind of support have you offered employees to be able to have the best possible work environment at home?

Early in the pandemic, all of our employees got the opportunity to take home whatever equipment they needed to create the best home office possible. For example, many took home their computer screens and desk chairs. We try to meet employees’ needs the best we can.

What has Entiros done to maintain social connections between employees remotely?

All our teams has daily morning meetings to coordinate work-related issues and start the day with social interaction. We always have cameras on during our digital meetings so we can see each other. Not only is it nicer that way, but also easier to communicate and see how others are feeling.

We also have regular social meetings with the whole company like daily afternoon fika and weekly information meetings. Every other Friday, we also have something we call “fredagsfeeling,” where we take a half hour off from work and do something fun together, like a quiz competition.

Besides that, we have also had digital happy hours, a Christmas party with a digital treasure hunt, game nights, and more. We are creative and happy to try out any new and interesting ideas.

Do you think that anything will be different from before the pandemic when the office
opens again?

I’m sure that our employees are looking forward to coming back to the office and meeting in person again. When we come back, I think we will experience an even stronger sense of community than before due to finding more joy in things that we used to take for granted like spontaneous meetings in the hallway, laughing at the coffee machine, and just picking up on each other’s energy by being together in person.

I also think that there will be a mix of working at home and working at the office so that we get the best of both worlds. Even though most people are tired of working from home all the time right now, there are many who see the benefit of being able to have some peace and quiet in their home office for a couple of days when they feel like they need it.

When do you think that offices will reopen?

Our offices has recently opened for three or four employees at a time for those who feel that they need a change, while continuing to respect the guidelines for keeping distance from each other and following the other recommended restrictions. We hope and expect to be able to open our offices to everyone in August.

Entiros is looking for more people! Read more about our open positions here:
entiros.se/work-at-entiros