by Alyana Versolatto
For many, gone are the water cooler and lunchroom conversations that while mundane, were important in staying connected with colleagues. Workplace rituals we’ve long taken for granted have been removed by the pandemic. You would expect that these changes could be detrimental to every company’s culture, however, employees like Siddhi Purohit (MAcc’08) are currently very impressed with their employer’s culture and the values exhibited during the pandemic.
Purohit, who currently lives in London, England, and works for RBC Global Asset Management as associate portfolio manager of European equities, shared her experience so far working in a new remote environment. What she currently values most about her employer is that -management communicates often, team building activities are available, and there are still opportunities for charitable giving and career growth.
Open and transparent communication
Upper management sends out weekly communication updates that Purohit says are timely, transparent, and are open to feedback. It is difficult to stay connected with co-workers, especially across departments or teams, and so the solution to this for Purohit’s team was to start having weekly office meetings as an opportunity to connect and chat.
Team-building and charitable giving
Necessity is the mother of invention, and companies like RBC are re-thinking how they can build working relationships virtually. From cooking classes to escape rooms, there have been many activities that Purohit has participated in with her colleagues. Her team also likes to play casual games like the “guess the workspace” game, where team members have to guess whose office is who’s based on a picture —using messiness, pets, water bottles, and items as identifiers. Additionally, she also appreciates that RBC is committed to keeping up with their charitable contributions, with their team recently completing a virtual charity run together.
Resiliency and career growth
At the beginning of the pandemic, Purohit explained that she and all of her colleagues received resiliency training which has proven quite useful these last few months. She highlights that while culture is very important when evaluating a role, finding out the opportunities for professional development and advancement is very important too.
These were her four pieces of advice for standing out and getting ahead in a remote job to become senior leadership potential:
- Find the pain points in the team and trying to problem-solve them. If there is a specific task that is disliked by all team members, take that on and try and make it as automated and efficient as possible.
- Work hard, focus on putting out high-quality work, and always self-review before sending a project out.
- Make genuine connections with people in your team based on empathy and kindness.
- Lastly, always be willing to learn.