很难相信我们已经在家工作了七个星期。当荷兰政府在2020年3月12日首次宣布，如果可能的话，每个人都应该呆在家里，我们立即行动起来。在30分钟内，我们的首席执行官罗伯特-维斯向全球所有鸟类发送了一条信息，要求他们当天将笔记本电脑、充电器和其他必要的物品带回家--因为从当天晚上开始，我们所有的办公室都将关闭。

在一个晚上，我们为全球8个办事处的350多名员工实现了完全的远程工作。

作为一家公司，我们正在密切关注冠状病毒的流行，并尽我们所能防止其传播，最重要的是，保护我们员工的健康和福祉。我们为我们的快速反应感到自豪；当我们现在为下一阶段的远程工作做准备时，我们想分享我们学到的一些经验教训，以及我们为使我们的员工和团队获得虚拟成功所做的工作。毕竟，我们是#inthistogether。

在家工作（WFH）指南

As it seemed more likely that an “intelligent lockdown” scenario would come into effect for countries around the world, we focused on how to quickly and efficiently help our teams transition to working from home. We created best-practice guides for Birds and managers, plus parents and caregivers who faced additional challenges balancing the new work-life reality. These guidelines helped us ensure we maintained our Bird style of working while supporting the flexibility required to make WFH successful. 

正确掌握技术

As a tech company, we didn’t have to do a lot to ensure we had all the right collaboration tools in place to allow for virtual, real-time working together. Our day-to-day includes Hangouts, Slack, WhatsApp, Google Docs, Sheets and Slides, and we are fortunate enough that we’re used to going completely remote as a company (the last time being for our company offsite in Marrakech 在 beginning of the year). However, we have gained extra appreciation for these tools as they continue to help us bridge the virtual divide, ensuring we remain connected and talking constantly.  

保持通讯畅通

在Bird ，我们始终努力做到尽可能透明。清晰和直接有助于我们保持速度，确保我们都朝着同一个方向前进。在这种特殊的情况下，我们认为必须将内部沟通提升到一个新的水平--更快地分享即时信息，包括不确定因素。

全球全员参与。

We started running our global All-Hands meetings on a weekly basis. These company-wide meetings had been introduced when we were just 30 people, and since then, they’ve become a monthly figure in our calendars. As a global company, these normally kick-off at 1:00 p.m. CET, and typically last between 60-90 minutes; with moving them to a weekly cadence, we made them shorter (30 minutes) and, ultimately, more impactful. We keep 到 same content structure — introducing our new Birds, sharing business updates, celebrating milestones, giving Kudos shout-outs, and driving alignment around our company strategy. We always have an open Q&A 在 end where we read out and answer all questions (unfiltered). We then capture these in an FAQ which we share on our internal communications hub so everyone can review and reflect on the answers. We feel this also helps our managers be able to provide more details and context to their teams on the topics they care about the most.  

一个新的每周通讯。

我们推出了新的每周全球通讯，以分享关于COVID-19的主要更新、商业信息、人员和团队更新以及财务洞察力。但是，这份通讯中阅读量最大的部分是我们正在进行的 "WFH Vlog"，我们展示了三只鸟，带我们进入他们的WFH巢穴。从我们的首席财务官和他的三个女儿在他的餐桌下建立一个专门的工作空间，到我们的总法律顾问骑着三轮车在后院飙车，他们总是有点俏皮，并包含关于如何使远程工作取得成功的古怪建议。最好的部分是：他们给其他三个人贴上标签，这些人下周也会这样做。

与全球管理人员同步。

It’s important to us to keep building our leadership community as we adapt to leading distributed teams. To make this happen, we pull our global people leaders together every Wednesday to discuss important organizational and people topics, and answer any questions. 

加强我们的 ICCHANNELS ：

内部沟通的关键在于简单--易于理解、查找和分享。在这次大流行中，我们一直专注于优化我们的内部沟通channels ，以确保所有 "鸟类 "都能在需要的时间、以需要的方式找到所需的信息。我们的 IC 中心（昵称为 "猕猴桃"）是所有信息的中心渠道--"鸟 "们可以在这里找到所有信息：最新的政府和卫生部门措施、业务连续性计划、旅行限制、常见问题、WFH 指南、我们的每周通讯以及所有全球和地区公告。所有的通信channels 都会将我们的团队带回这个中心。

Try to keep it fresh and fun 

We would not be Bird if we didn’t introduce some fun into our new day-to-day. So we’ve added one more IC channel — ǞǞǞ BirdFeed — where we share healthy recipes, our favorite Spotify playlists, series and movies to binge watch, and the best books to read. We also host virtual meditation sessions and hard-core workouts hosted by our own in-house trainers. We even have a Bird University digital library where we share online courses for people to continue to work on their development and personal growth.  

Set the right expectations

COVID-19震动了我们所有人，而这段不确定的时间由于不得不采用一种全新的常规--一种新的 "正常"--我们的个人和工作生活完全融合在一起而变得更加复杂。要平衡这一切是很难的。

So as a company, we’ve tried to set the right expectations. ǞǞǞ most important thing we can encourage our Birds to do is take a break! Schedule some time to exercise, read, try out a new recipe or pause for a cup of coffee. Take some time off and step away completely from their laptop for a day or more. The mental health and wellbeing of our Birds is so important — to us, their friends, and especially their family. To further support them, we offer coaching for individuals and teams on coping with the COVID-19 situation.

虚拟入职

Despite these unusual work circumstances, we remain focused on growing the business. We’re continuing to source and hire the best talent in the industry, with all interviews completed virtually. Although we love bringing all new joiners to our Amsterdam headquarters to kick-start their onboarding, we’ve had to find a different way to help them ramp up.  Around the world, all newly hired Birds are shipped the MessageBird starter pack, including a laptop, branded “swag” and noise-cancelling headphones. We also launched a new digital onboarding app and training tool which allows Birds to explore everything from our culture and our offices to products and commercial strategy, right from their mobile phone. And we’ve also designed virtual onboarding kits for both new hires and their managers, to ensure a smooth welcome 到 MessageBird family.

展望未来

We won’t deny it — we’re excited to return to our offices. We miss our teams, colleagues, lunches and Friday beers. But the truth is, we don’t know if we’ll be able to go back in three weeks or three months. Although we’re preparing for all eventualities, our main focus is on continuing to make today’s reality work. We’re keeping our culture alive at every touchpoint, keeping pace and making traction — really just making it work to “get shit done.” 

So, until we’re able to safely go back to the office location, let’s make sure we keep staying connected, sharing best practices, and supporting each other through this period. At MessageBird, we believe in the power of different perspectives (and ideas)! So, if you have any tips, tricks or your own lessons learned, we’d love to hear about them so we can learn from you. 

现在，保持健康，保持安全，并让我们继续分享。