Staying Connected with Shift By Kylie Johnston & Anna DeSantis
The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted organizations across the world, forcing companies to quickly navigate uncharted territories and adapt policies to an ever-changing environment. Here at Shift, the Employee Relations Team quickly banded together to ensure the fluidity of these transitions while maintaining the priority of our employee’s health and well-being. After quickly implementing a work from home policy, we realized we needed a way to keep employees connected and informed through this time of uncertainty.
The week following our “shift” to working remotely, the ER Team sent out the first Weekly WFH Newsletter. This first edition featured WFH tips and tricks, along with updated benefit information to include COVID-19 coverage. The weeks following, we have (with the help of our employee submissions) covered an array of topics: professional development tools, health and wellness resources, at home workouts, new recipes, new legislations and a new company holiday. It has truly been a collaborative effort across our entire organization, so much that we have received feedback from employees stating they have never felt more connected to their peers than they do now.
In addition to our Weekly WFH Newsletter, we relaunched our Quarterly Newsletter after a short hiatus. The Quarterly Newsletter highlights important events and accomplishments from the quarter with sneak peaks of what to expect in the coming months. Each issue welcomes our new hires, provides current stats on promotions and includes a note from a member of our Executive Team. The remaining content focuses on team bonding, philanthropic events and employee spotlights from an inclusive mix of teams, locations and positions within the company.
This content collection wouldn’t be possible without having a method to the madness! Our Newsletter Team begins brainstorming content at least a month prior to distribution. We actively reach out to teams for content and work together on final edits and revisions. Once it is crafted to perfection, the newsletter is distributed company-wide via email announcement at the beginning of the quarter. Our Newsletter Team consists of five employees: Jackson Riggen, Kaitlyn Patrick, Kylie Johnston, Marcelle Wallace and Megan Gorman.
Our people first culture has always been a unique feature of the Shift brand. We initially thought this pandemic could pose a threat to our ability to nurture this culture. However, through our employee engagement and contributions, we have proven that shift-ing to working remotely has increased communication, cultivated relationships and improved productivity across all of our offices. Not even a pandemic can stop us from doing epic Shift.