Finding new ways to collaborate in a virtual world — now and in the future

Collaboration

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst: pushing firms in the U.S. and around the world to adapt and find new ways to collaborate efficiently with employees and clients.

​​​​​​​Some common themes and concerns include how to create connection in a virtual world, maintaining a focus on innovation and a candid contemplation of the future of business collaboration.

Creating connection in a virtual world

Whether they are new to virtual working or well-versed in helping their people connect with each other and with clients remotely, firms are finding new ways to thrive in a virtual world.

Some companies have found virtual mentoring, in which a senior employee builds a connection with and mentors a new recruit through technology.

Other successful strategies employed across the board included engagement through increased video communication with managers and colleagues; virtual rather than email interviews; mentoring and training sessions for new hires; work-from-home webinars for clients; flexible meeting times; a focus on more personal interactions; and setting aside time to just check in with colleagues.

Principal Global Asset Management has found nurturing employee well-being by “doing less talking and more listening” and giving employees flexibility have helped to drive collaboration.

"We’ve focused on creating caring connections and allowed employees to personalize and experiment with the collaboration tools because we’re all in different situations. Our teams are reaching out and understanding each other and many of our leaders have done personal connection types of forums. And that’s been really successful; one of the things that’s come out of this is a better, stronger connection."

Brian Ness, Chief Information Officer, Principal Global Asset Management.

Maintaining a focus on continuous innovation

Keeping innovation at the core of their services and solutions is one way that firms have nurtured collaboration between people working from home.

“We haven't stopped innovating. In some cases, I think this has given us an opportunity to say, ‘Does the way we’re doing this process make sense? Do we need to put a cross-functional team together to collaborate and drive an initiative?’ We’re always focused on experiential learning, so we look to bring together cross-functional teams to provide growth opportunities for our people.”

Rory Melick, Managing Director, Head of Employee Experience, Lord Abbett.

AllianceBernstein has also kept innovating, building on their legacy of keeping employees connected from afar following Hurricane Sandy in 2012. The company redeployed programmers, testers and engineers from technology teams into operations to make sure that in the event of losing an offshore provider they could onshore that work. This created opportunities for collaboration and idea generation.

In some cases, the pandemic accelerated delivery of existing innovative projects. At Barings, an improved intranet with mobile capability and enhanced visual features — already in the works pre-COVID-19 — was launched in July. This new tool is instrumental in sharing content globally to foster collaboration and help employees get to know one another. Employee feedback has been positive, and engagement levels are high.

Contemplating the future of business collaboration

Collaboration is vital to successful business operations, and envisioning what it will look like going forward is high on the agenda for many firms.

Many of the practices and strategies that have been developed in response to working conditions imposed by the coronavirus crisis look set to stay. For instance, one executive noted that high-quality video and audio are enabling employees to embrace technology and feel connected when working remotely — and to achieve the same results as meeting in person.

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​This is especially critical even as employees are beginning to return to the office and many firms impose safety restrictions. For instance, they are limiting the number of people in conference rooms or rethinking in-person collaboration to maintain social distancing and reduce the number of people in places where people tend to congregate.

Virtual working is now seen as more efficient and environmentally friendly and looks set to become part of the new normal.

“It’s interesting to see firms taking it a step forward to say, ‘Maybe this is stuff we should’ve done regardless of the current crisis. These are practices that we want here for the long haul,’” reflected Robert McWilliams, Chief Operating Officer of Global Technology and Operations at AllianceBernstein.

Kristina Theiss, Chief Operating Officer, Client Coverage Americas and Global Head of Client Data Management at asset manager DWS Group, cited communications’ centrality to the firm’s culture as a key element in employees’ rapid and successful adaptation to remote working and collaborating. Theiss reckons COVID-19 has brought about some positive outcomes for her company.

“If I had to find a silver lining in COVID-19, it’s that we have increased communication throughout the organization, and I consider that a big win”, said Theiss. “If we can maintain that increased communication and people continue to feel engaged with their manager and their firm, I believe that can lead to better employee commitment and engagement and retention.”