Working from home and flexitime has been standard practice at 3Squared towers for a number of years; we have worked hard to nurture a culture that supports a positive work/life balance. Lockdown however saw us implement a 100% WFH policy for all staff, in a matter of days with no discernible break in service.
Naturally, our team went through a period of readjustment but were it not for their innate resilience and enthusiasm this could have taken much longer. Credit to every single team member for helping the company make a swift and efficient switch to remote working.
But it is not a case of business as usual. Whilst we have ensured that our existing clients are able to access the same level of support and service as normal there is so much more that has been achieved. Here is a quick round up of what BAU+ looks like at 3Squared:
- We have lifted license restrictions from our RailSmart collaboration tools, this is our way of helping our rail freight and passenger customers provide their essential services as efficiently as possible. Our support team are on hand to assist clients with this
- We have delivered several huge project milestones maintaining a level of care and productivity that is consistent with working in the office. This has been achieved through our superb project management and client liaison teams’ attention to detail and dedication to quality customer care
- Our development and quality teams are managing consistent, continual RailSmart product development and upgrades and are communicating this seamlessly through client liaison
- The service design team have been hard at work with bespoke research whilst delivering upgrades on user interface and customer experience practice to internal and external customers
- All teams have put in place virtual scrum / stand-up meetings, as a result intra-team communication is constantly maintained, providing further support to existing and newer clients. In addition to maintaining the usual daily meetings we have implemented bitesize weekly team meetings and “all hands-on deck” sessions
BAU+ is not limited to meeting the needs of our clients; internally our operations and HR and IT teams work together closely, figuratively speaking, to ensure that our internal culture of care is also maintained:
- Operations and IT pulled out all the stops to transition the team from majority-office based to 100% WFH practically overnight
- HR have initiated a number of wellbeing practices, checking in on staff individually and collectively and providing regular health and wellbeing support tools across the entire team
- HR and other team leads have been hard at work on ensuring our placement and graduate schemes are maintained
- The 3Squared conviviality has been protected too: we have weekly pub quizzes in our “virtual local” to wrap up a demanding week and provide a clear marker for the team to down tools
In conclusion, lockdown has enabled us to enrich not only our internal practices, ensuring we are a truly flexible workplace, but we believe that we have maintained a level of support to our RailSmart clients that has enabled them to maintain a modicum of normality in what are truly extraordinary times.
