Work related reflections September 3,  2021

The people behind your projects

Sofía Acher   •  Communication Specialist   •  Linkedin
GG
Gabriela García   •  Software Quality Assurance Analyst   •  Linkedin

According to a study carried out by the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School in collaboration with British multinational telecoms company BT, happy employees are 13% more productive (Wellable, 2020). When working from home, at a distance, and apart from each other, creating, establishing, and maintaining a positive environment to work in becomes a challenge. The traditional office atmosphere Onetree used to have, was divided into multiple hybrid homes-and-offices’ atmospheres. Some employees started working at Onetree in this context, which meant undergoing the trial work period, being “the new ones”, understanding how everything worked and so on, at a distance. Even under these circumstances, most experienced a really positive work environment, and even closeness in some cases. How does this impact our projects and their results?

Some of our members express they feel good and work happily; even if there are harder days as in any workspace, the positive ambience is always present. As stated by the mentioned study, this fact does not only influence productivity, but it also means employees work faster, perform better according to what is expected from their roles, and adhere to their workflow schedule more closely (Wellable, 2020). This shows that employees’ mental and emotional wellbeing directly impacts their results, which acquires relevance on the following. Some of Onetree’s workers have seen that if they really needed to talk to someone, there was always someone around to listen. This person may be a Team Leader, someone from the Human Resources department, or co-workers, among others. In some teams, when one is a little sad, there is always someone to boost the spirit or make a joke. We value this dynamic that emerges and we think it is even more valuable in the context we are nowadays, in which we are not sharing the same workplace. 

Moreover, Onetree members underline that the work done is in general highly valued by Team Leaders and Project Managers as well as by the client. They recognize that what everyone adds is positive, which is taken into account as long as it benefits the client’s project. Proposals do not generally stay unattended or forgotten and employees feel that their suggestions are seriously considered, even if they have joined the company a short time ago. Some comment that in previous work experiences in other companies, the work they did or their proposals were “left unconsidered”, unrecognized and not as valued as in Onetree. Receiving positive feedback makes us, members of Onetree, feel motivated to keep working and giving our best. Many of us choose to stay out of hours to continue working or get inspired late at night to elaborate proposals because we really enjoy our jobs. This is connected to one of the reasons for happy employees to be more productive: they are typically those who care about the organization and are driven to make it achieve its goals, they feel invested in the company’s goals and are more compelled to work (Ainomugisha, n.d.). We know our extra work will be verbally recognized on the next days or on the next performance evaluations. Sometimes we work extra hours because we know we can advance and it will be useful, for our co-workers who may need our part to keep going, and therefore positive for the whole team. This makes our work flow and allows us to gain time to exploit our talents and capabilities in favour of our clients’ projects. Our priority is always complying with the client, so we commit to the project and work responsibly to achieve their goals. 

When the time to start working arrives, various Onetree members start working motivated because they know they will have fun while doing it, enjoying their jobs and  time spent with other co-workers. Even when a situation gets complicated, we try to put on a good vibe and do our best to solve it. In one of our projects, Smart Portfolio, we are so in-depth with the project and know the client’s dynamic in such profundity that we go a step further from what they specifically asked. We apply our acquired knowledge of the client to work in the best possible way, considering in advance what they may expect or ask for, taking past experiences into consideration. Teamwork works because we try to foresee those expectations or requests and warn each other, in our different roles, to be able to achieve altogether, results that will satisfy the client as much as possible. This happens a lot between QA and Development, since they warn themselves to help each other. This implicit policy of “good will” towards the projects and with each other makes working flow better.

Towards the clients, the continuous search to please them, reaching their expectations, and helping them achieve their project’s goals is always the axis. When we face challenges, we look for alternatives to keep them on track towards their objectives. We constantly intend to be in-depth with the client’s business, because we believe it is not only important to manage the technical aspects of our work but also to deeply get to know our client’s business to understand them better, empathize more with them and lean on that to orient our work. The CEO of a Med Tech Startup for whom we collaborated to define her product said: “They put so much time and effort into understanding our culture and mission statement”. In the same vein, Diego Mariño, the CEO of Lentesplus, expressed: “They showed their commitment to work with us as a strategic partner more than just a service provider” and Carlos Canales, the CEO of Novugens stood out: “They listen to why I think something needs to be done differently”. Clients have highlighted that they see that we are looking after their goals and businesses. 

References

Ainomugisha, G. (2020, 15 may). 5 Great Reasons Why Happiness

Increases Productivity. The 6Q Blog. https://inside.6q.io/5-great-reasons-why-happiness-increases-productivity/

STUDY: HAPPY EMPLOYEES ARE 13% MORE PRODUCTIVE. (2020, 2

november). Wellable. https://blog.wellable.co/study-happy-employees-are-13-more-productive

Sofía Acher Communication Specialist   •  Linkedin
GG
Gabriela García Software Quality Assurance Analyst   •  Linkedin