Remote Proximity, or Beeline Internal Communication

In today’s world, the practice of remote work has been widely established, even in the largest corporations. Beeline is one of those companies that decided to keep remote work as a new practice and introduced a "work from anywhere" policy. In order to preserve the corporate culture at such times, modern corporations use a number of practices.

Khatia Giorgobiani, an organizational development specialist, tells us about Beeline's experience and the additional importance internal communication has gained in the company.

“Internal communication is not just about news and informing employees. Internal communication is one of the most powerful tools for supporting corporate culture and ensuring employee engagement, always, be it in a period of crisis or a stable daily routine.”

What communication channels do you use and how were the employees are involved?

Our main internal communication channel is Workplace by Facebook. We have been using this platform very actively since 2018. Employee engagement has always been high, and the topics, of course, have always been “alive,” relevant to a particular moment, time and situation... The difference in today's situation is that during this period, a new feature has been added to the platform, making it a kind of "gathering place" necessary for corporate life and becoming a space for teamwork, spending time together, sharing news, and supporting each other.

What was the content for internal communication in parallel with the current events in the country from March to the present?

An unusually extraordinary situation has arisen - physical distancing and "distance proximity" have become vital. We had to care to strengthen the corporate spirit so that employees did not lose a “sense of belonging.” On the contrary, this sense should become even stronger.

We had to show the main thing - the most important issue for the company is the physical and mental health and safety of people. Since February 2020, a crisis-related internal communication plan, just like other action plans, has been built on this one and main principle.

It all started in late February. As soon as the first cases of coronavirus were identified in Georgia, we made the first information brochure - how and how not to act, how to stay calm and where to get the most reliable information.

From that day on, internal communication became strictly consistent and regular, as the very first communication feedback showed us that we are very important to the people on whom the corporation stands.

The language of communication has become even softer and more informal. In the very first days, we called our new corporate reality "Shinshroma" (“work at home”) and even created a relevant guidebook about the daily routine, workspace and work process.

We held a photo-video contest on the topic "Shinshroma", chose winners, and delivered symbolic gifts at home along with personal letters.

We have dedicated our platform to “Mindfulness” training and activated an online training communication campaign.

We’ve organized the “lives” of top managers on completely free topics - presenting what, in their opinion, would make it easier for employees to deal with stress, cheer them up, or motivate them.

We conducted weekly fun and, at the same time, business surveys. It was a kind of “checking the pulse” to analyze which issues were the most challenging for us, what was easy to deal with, whether we liked it or not, and we already knew how we were going to manage things the following week.

During the quarantine, we launched a weekly live show "Coffee Break", which became a kind of “domestic show,” it still continues successfully and we will probably keep it for a long time. This show is dedicated to various current or just exciting topics, and we invite employees to talk. The main purpose of the program is to get to know the employees better or from a different angle.

In addition, we created a list of entertaining activities to do at home on Friday evenings and weekends. We created groups of movies, TV series and book lovers and also a group for parents.

We start every Monday with a refreshing “good morning” and new plans, and end every Friday with a summary of the week and a thousand thanks to our employees.

And all this, of course, happening in parallel with the publication of business news, new products, services, and reports of various functions.

In terms of the "work from anywhere" policy, what tools do you use to maintain a corporate culture and overall work motivation?

The newly introduced “Shinshroma” (“work at home”) has turned into "work from anywhere", however, this does not change anything significantly.

The main principle of our work, obviously, has not changed, because the basis of corporate culture – our values - has not changed. People and their health and safety, remain our main value.

We believe that free and happy employees who feel and see that they are trusted, appreciated and supported are the most productive. This will be a course of future development of "work from anywhere" and also the way to maintain corporate spirit - we will continue to care for people and this time, we will give them what they need most - the possibility to “live” the relationship. We still remain active in the online space and at the same, planning offline formal or non-formal gatherings of different formats and a thousand other interesting activities.