The effects of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic have left many people feeling isolated, disconnected, and exhausted. The past 2 years have presented a unique set of challenges, and more than ever, it is crucial to make sure our people feel safe, valued and supported.

HELPING OUR PEOPLE TO FEEL SAFE, VALUED AND SUPPORTED:

It is critical to help our people understand the Covid-19 situation and the continually evolving rules and restrictions impacting our own circumstances and our everyday work. We have made sure we communicate regularly with reliable information so that our people feel empowered to make decisions about how to adapt in their roles and how to keep themselves, and their families, safe.

During this time, we understood that all our people were under additional pressure with the changing requirements of work, home schooling, concern for loved ones and their job security. We wanted our people to know that their health and wellbeing were important. We provided confidence that Zoom Recruitment would initiate changes relating to how we would usually undertake our work and our people’s personal situations in response to Covid-19 requirements. We made sure our people did not need to choose between conflicting expectations at home and at work.

As a result, Zoom Recruitment supported working from home, offered our people flexibility so they could balance their work and home responsibilities, supported our people to work remotely during isolation, and developed plans to pivot our branches quickly if we had any positive cases on-site. This created some sense of comfort that Zoom Recruitment had a plan and would look after our people.

We also updated our KUDOZ reward and recognition program’s wellbeing days as extra leave for our branch staff. The intent of Wellbeing Leave is for our people to take some time away from work and hit the reset button by doing something that recharges their batteries. Within the Covid-19 requirements, sometimes this meant being at home and relaxing instead of working from home.

To help our people feel safe, valued and supported we took a simple approach – Ask. We took the time to find out what was going on with our people by continually checking in, being more aware of any changes from what we would usually see or hear, really listening to what our people were saying, and talking through options and ideas.

SHARING GOOD NEWS AND CELEBRATING THE WINS:

In a world that seemed only to be focused on bad news, we knew it was important to share the good news with our people. Sharing positive Google Reviews and all our success stories with our people helped to boost morale and confirm our future was secure.

The pandemic meant that isolation was a reality and some people struggled with working from home or state-based locked downs. We established a standard for our people to stay connected and engage with others using video conferencing. Zoom Recruitment already had this in place to keep connected with all our branches across Australia, so we extended this when our people were not on-site. When working from home, one of our teams stayed connected via video conferencing all day, so it felt like they were in the office together. We encouraged people to chat with their cameras on and we scheduled more regular catch ups when people were working from home or in isolation.

Because we celebrate the wins, we went virtual with our events and celebrations. Appreciation Day, Red Nose Day, R U OK Day, Great Place to Work and our birthday are some of the events that we celebrated together online. Our people were encouraged to attend and some really got into the spirit of the event with background screens, dressing up and where restrictions allowed, virtually joining in small groups.

Our people faced all the challenges of Covid-19 just like any obstacle and came out on the other side victorious, motivated and engaged. In September last year, we asked our people how they felt about Zoom Recruitment and measured our staff engagement, resulting in our Great Place to Work certification with 98% of our people agreeing that Zoom Recruitment is a Great Place to Work. We had a fantastic result to our survey with a 90% response rate.

And 100% of our people said...

• Management is competent at running the business
• This is a physically safe place to work
• I am proud to tell others I work at Zoom
• I would strongly endorse Zoom to friends and family as a Great Place to Work
• When you join Zoom, you are made to feel welcome 

Click here to learn more about our Great Place to Work certification.

LOOKING FORWARD TO THE REST OF 2022:

With our experience and response to how Covid-19 impacts our people, we are ready for things to normalise again - or if we are faced with another variant and need to respond, we are ready for that too. Our people know what to do and having learnt from the past 2 years, we have plans in place.

In January 2022 we launched our new intranet to enable us to provide more information and share engaging news between our national teams. Our aim is to keep people connected and share timely information. We’re looking forward to more engagement activities and events in the Zoom Recruitment community - both the fun ones and the ones for a good cause. Our events calendar includes a ‘Pay It Forward’ month of activities in February, Harmony Week in March when we’ll be celebrating Australia’s and Zoom Recruitment’s rich and diverse culture, and a Biggest Morning Tea event in May to raise essential funds for people impacted by cancer.

As we move forward and face whatever challenges come our way, we know that our people will continue seek and find balance in every aspect of their lives with dedication and commitment.