What changes have you done during this period?
Going back in time… at the beginning of March, we consolidated an extensive business continuity plan, and we tested the work from home alternative in full a couple of weeks before the state of emergency was announced in Romania. For us, the transition to a mass work from home was not a huge undertaking, but rather a confirmation that what we were doing already paid off. Now, after eight months of work from home, we can say that the possibility to carry out our professional activity 100% remote was a bless. Nevertheless, we miss the office atmosphere and the “good” energy that used to boost our mood when working in the same place.

Which have been your priorities during work from home period?
We adapted quickly to the context dictated by the pandemic and set clear priorities, out of which we’d like to mention four of the most important. The first, keeping our colleagues safe – the entire SGBS Bucharest community has been working from home for more almost 8 months now. The second, ensuring that our business is not affected by the remote approach; the third, keeping our colleagues engaged and continuing to focus on their well-being; last, but not least, keeping a transparent communication with both our colleagues and our stakeholders.

How have you maintained your colleagues motivated during this period?
To start with, our colleagues participate to virtual meetings daily and are encouraged by their managers to be communicative and open, so that distance is not an obstacle in carrying out the activity and maintaining a healthy team relationship. We believe that a good collaboration with teammates and the transparent communication coming from the leadership team have contributed to generating a sense of security, which is so important during this period.



Additionally, Employer Branding team focused on adapting our well-being program to the current context. At the office, we had a warm and friendly working environment, with lots of events happening on the floor. Therefore, since March, we focused on adapting our projects to the current context and, guess what, we were happy to find out how creative we can get! Our well-being ambassadors is organizing recurrent Mindfulness, Sports or debate sessions. Besides these, we organize thematic events, workshops on personal development with guest speakers and so many more! All these are meant to boost our mood and increase happiness and peace in these troubled times.

If you were to choose one thing that you're most proud of, as a company, since the pandemic outbreak, which would that be?
Our focus on people. Without doubt, this period has brought a lot of uncertainty, insecurity, anxiety both on personal and professional level. We understood that we needed to put extra effort in keeping our community united, in order to get over this period together, as one team with one goal, as one of our values says. The internal programs and projects that were created or consolidated had as objective engaging our colleagues, offering them tools and opportunities to strengthen the relationships and to develop themselves on personal and professional level.

What have you learnt during this period?
There are so many to mention… We learnt how important it is not to avoid change and to gradually adapt to steep situations. Also, it has been confirmed to us the importance of effective communication, through adequate channels, in order to keep people informed and give them confidence.

Check out all the available DB Schenker GBS opportunities here