‘Overall, our company has shifted seamlessly into the home working environment’
When the COVID-19 crisis began earlier in the year, Soprano Design’s leadership team knew it was critical to quickly communicate their strategy to protect both their people’s health and the health of the business.
Helen Rutherford, director of people and culture, Soprano, told HRD that with employees located across five continents, the company regularly uses remote-working collaboration, so no technology training was necessary.
“We are fortunate in that we are a global communication technology company and our people are aware of the importance of great communication when it’s really needed,” said Rutherford.
“We are also fortunate that 25% of our people and 40% of our senior leadership team were already working from home on a permanent basis.”
With employees scattered across so many countries, the key challenge for Soprano has been keeping people up to speed with the health risks in each jurisdiction.
This includes monitoring government regulations and assessing what was happening to employees and customers in different locations.
“We had to weigh up whether to close offices, how to respond to changing customer demand, and the subsidies and benefits that might be applicable to either the business or to employees to help see us through the pandemic,” Rutherford said.
She added that monitoring market intelligence across geographies and the industry was necessary to stay on top the crisis, as well as signing up to legal updates from local law firm partners and seeking specialist advice where necessary.
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Moreover, Soprano has made a conscious effort to prioritise mental health and wellness since the crisis began.
This involved providing information and training, and understanding that each person reacts and responds differently to threats and crisis.
Another action Soprano took was establishing a primary point of contact for each region, who was responsible for communication about COVID-19 with people in their area.
This enabled the company to get local assistance and visibility in each region and ensured communication was translated into local language.
“Overall, our company has shifted seamlessly into the home working environment,” Rutherford added.
“Our productivity, client activity and collaboration have all improved. The evidence is both anecdotal and backed up with survey data.”
According to an internal survey designed to gauge the effectiveness of their handling of the crisis early on, all (100%) of Soprano’s employees stated they felt they know what they need to do to keep safe and healthy.
Additionally, 97% responded they were staying connected as a team of colleagues, 92% felt that they were adapting well to the changing work conditions, and 88% felt Soprano’s leadership team was still ‘visible’ despite being fully remote.
A follow up survey indicates the Soprano leadership team has either sustained or improved these results, with 91% of people stating they can do their work as effectively from home as in the office, and 96% of leaders having the tools, resources, and confidence to manage their teams remotely during the pandemic.
Even though Soprano are proud of these results, the leadership team are still focused on what lessons they can learn from the pandemic.
“As our Soprano teams plan to make their way back into offices globally, we’re asking ourselves whether we will see a fundamental shift to a greater percentage of our people working remotely,” said Rutherford.
“Our data indicates a significant appetite to do this at all levels of the organisation, with 100% of managers who responded to the latest survey stating they are more likely to support flexible and remote working in the future as a result of our recent experience.”
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Working with high performing leadership teams to grow and transform business is what Rutherford enjoys most about working in HR. She joined the Soprano Design team in March 2019 to lead their global people and culture function as the business continues its double-digit growth in the accelerating CPaaS market.
“I really enjoy being part of businesses which are really growing and changing, as opposed to more steady state operations. And I really enjoy executing our growth strategies through people,” said Rutherford.
“This involves leveraging data to understand what it tells us about past, present and future circumstances, which informs our decision making and enables us to execute more effectively.
“I also love building and leading great HR teams to deliver these growth strategies - it’s really exciting work.”
