YES. Strong teamwork despite Corona.
Nobody could have imagined it and yet suddenly it had become the new normal: the Covid-19 case numbers were rising rapidly and companies had to act fast. CHT was no exception, and in our case that meant asking as many employees as possible to work remotely. For most business units this transition was straightforward but laboratory workers were a different case. How did they rise to the challenge?
Minimizing social contacts
CHT’s solution involved breaking our employees up into two teams working every other week in the office and laboratory. That made it possible to keep social contacts to a minimum and ensured that all basic work processes could continue even if one of the two teams had to quarantine in the event of a Covid-19 case. It was certainly a big challenge for the entire team, as personal exchanges between employees were reduced at a moment’s notice. The entire team deserves plenty of praise for mastering this new challenge!
Leveraging digital posibilities
Digital options were a big help when it came to making it happen. We also owe our IT team a great deal of gratitude for acting so quickly! Chats and video conferences have enabled us to stay up-to-date across teams, work on files together and manage handovers for laboratory experiments in progress, but also to stay motivated and keep morale high. When reduced working hours were introduced due to the decline in orders it was particularly important, because at that point many colleagues could no longer be reached on the same day. Our bridgeheads working remotely did an excellent job despite these difficulties and provided both teams with solid advice and support.
Brilliant teamwork at all levels
I particularly like the fact that the teams were also able to consult with each other across disciplines and found and implemented effective solutions independently. I'm really proud of this achievement because it shows what a great team we have and that we can grow together even when we’re faced with huge challenges!
