Remote work, home office: our adaptation how-to

Still, the current time of the entire PDU working from home is a great change. Imagine an organisational unit of 70 people who normally occupy the third floor of BlackBelt HQ. PDU’s head, Gábor Jenisz reports about the transfer.

How did you prepare for home office work at PDU?

A week prior to the announcement of general home office we made a list of what was necessary for a smooth changeover. An infrastructure survey, the required enhancements and purchasing of equipment were absolutely clear steps. We had to do this not only on the central BlackBelt side, but also colleagues at home checking their technical environment (internet connection, software, hardware, etc.). We were lucky to agree fast with our clients on the application of new security measures, since we were working on-site as well on a number of tasks. Based on our experience in the first two weeks, we have not seen any hitches. Our infrastructure has been running smoothly.

How do you follow events day-to-day?

PDU consists of specialist and project teams (back end, front end, mobile, testing, devops, business analysts/solution designers, project management). We have set up a daily exchange with the team leaders: each of them sends me a short report of events by the end of the working hours. I always give feedback and provide information on PDU’s presales and project tasks, our business operation and inquiries from clients. By the daily exchange we are also trying to make up for not being able to talk casually over coffee or lunch.

Since openness and transparency are basic values of our flat organisation both in-house and towards our clients, fortunately colleagues are still willing to share difficulties with me the same way as it was before the current situation.

What do you expect from the PDU specialist management team regarding communication?

My primary expectation is sharing information with all of their team members. During the first week of overall home office, it was a special task to test HO working rules and their efficiency and in practice. Regarding availability and response times, our clients expect the same of us.

Has anyone in PDU or BlackBelt initiated any new forms of communication?

I have an example from PDU: our BA/SD team leader has come up with the idea of having a 15-minute “coffee break” chat every other day. What we miss the most during this time is playing table soccer, having lunch or coffee together, so we are trying our best to find new ways.