With the first month of 2021 almost complete, we are grateful for a new start and everything 2021 brings. While 2020 was filled with hardships and new challenges, finding the chance to be grateful for all that we have learned is a good reminder that growth is a result of being challenged. Please look at the top four lessons we have learned from 2020 to help us prepare for a better new year.
1. Being Open to Fresh Ideas
In 2020, HEPCO engaged a new partner to redesign our website with the intent to provide an enhanced platform to benefit our current and future clients and employees. The website successfully launched in September. The most significant addition is the site’s integration with our ATS (applicant tracking system), which provides for a more efficient and seamless application process for jobseekers. In our effort to provide greater transparency, the new site includes feedback forms for both clients and employees. Throughout the end of 2020, our new site has moved HEPCO closer to achieving our goal of making our staffing process as efficient as possible.
2. Remote Work can be Just as Productive as In-Person Work
As the pandemic has sheltered us in our homes, the way we have worked has changed significantly. Our team now works a mix of in-person and online, with weekly Microsoft Team Meetings, to go over company updates and a daily email recapping the day’s work. Learning how to stay connected in a time we are physical distant has been easy for our team, as everyone is just a phone or video call, email, or message away.
3. Adopting a Flexible Work Model
When HEPCO moved mainly to working from home, we were still able to have two employees and by June, four employees worked in our offices at a time. Switching between working in-person and online, has allowed our team to learn how to create flexibility in order to provide an improved level of service, no matter where we worked. Although at times, it was challenging to adopt our work model, we kept the HEPCO mission in the forefront of our mind and continued to provide cost-effective, timely, personalized and transparent staffing services. Fulfilling the HEPCO mission successfully during the pandemic, was due to an increased reliance on technology to communicate with our clients, employees and each other.
4. How to Stay Future-Oriented
While 2020 has been a year filled with much uncertainty, it has been vital to continue looking towards the future. While we were extremely grateful to stay operating, we were all impacted by not knowing what would come from the pandemic and how the world would change. Despite this challenge, we focused on building our team to meet the needs of our clients and employees. We stayed future–oriented by hiring our new Human Resource Manager and Assistant FSO, Kristian Garcia. Kristian has been instrumental in developing employee right packages, COVID-19 guidelines for the office, assisting with security clearances, and adding a new level of efficiency to the HEPCO Team.
While 2020 has not been without its hardships, HEPCO’s reliance on each other and technology, has allowed for another successful year in HEPCO’s 47-year history. 2021 is still filled with much uncertainty, but HEPCO will stay vigilant throughout this year and continue to provide our services with the utmost regard for our clients and employees. We look forward to all the new challenges 2021 will bring and remember what this past year has taught us, as we seek to provide our clients with highly qualified candidates and our employees with jobs that match their experience and goals.
Despite the challenges of the past year, we hope you have also been able to find some good from 2020 and hope for a new year.