Focus on the most important factors, measure often - and don't forget to have fun. This is how Arnhild Grimstad, HR Manager at Amesto, reads tips for maintaining a high level of engagement when employees work from home.
"Life is now - work somewhere awesome" is Amesto's vision. Awesome has been away from home since mid-March. While working from home is normally nothing strange, when the entire business is run remotely for an extended period of time, both the ability to cooperate and the leadership are put to the test. Amesto (Norway) acted quickly and created important conditions early on for employees to manage their work from home. 
Arnhild Grimstad, HR Manager, tells how they tailor &frankly to their needs.
How are you & frankly using right now?
- We have created a whole new questionnaire that is sent out once a week to all employees in the entire group. During this period, we have adapted the questions to how employees feel, both privately and professionally.
What are you measuring?
- Initially, there are five factors we delved into:
- Leadership
We wanted to ensure that employees receive the support they need. Therefore, we asked questions about how managers motivate, whether they are clear with their expectations and how the feedback process works. - Well-being
That everyone is doing well, both privately and at work, is very important. Therefore, we ask employees how they feel, that their boss and colleagues care about them. - Collaboration
Working from home for an extended period of time requires us to collaborate and communicate well. Therefore, we measure how well the collaboration works within the teams, but also within the entire company and with our customers. - Knowledge & tools
To work effectively together from home, we need the right tools. Therefore, we ask questions that ensure employees have the right knowledge about the tools we use (Microsoft Teams, Workplace, &frankly, etc.). - The situation right now
Finally, we ask the employees to describe their current job situation: Do they have chaos or control and are they happy or sad?
How do you follow up the results in a first step?
– As soon as the results are available, the HR Managers ( Heidi Nygjelten, Amesto TechHouse and Cathrine Fritzøe, Amesto TopTemp) and I decide what we need to do to capture the employees' feedback. We look extra closely at the comments on each question. We also review the results online with management and each manager does the same with his team.
What happens after that?
– In challenging times, focusing on what we can do better is as important as actually looking at what we are already doing well. We therefore encourage the managers to celebrate good results. For teams that have succeeded particularly well, we encourage the managers to share their "best practice" with other managers in the organization. For example, some managers are very good at keeping their teams together, and this is something others can be inspired by.
What have you seen in the results so far?
– On more questions than before, the answers have been either higher or lower. This may be because the situation we are in reinforces the experience of a question. For example, if you do not normally find yourself receiving the help you need from your manager, you are likely to answer even less on that question right now because you do not have your colleagues around you either. But thanks to &frankly we can now ensure that every employee gets the support they need and we constantly adapt the questions to the insights we get from the result.
3 insights from Arnhild Grimstad:
- Focus on the most important factors that make your business roll on and ask questions to employees based on it. With & frankly you get insights that help you prioritize.
- It's easy to get caught up in the seriousness of the situation, but don't forget to have fun. We have eaten online lunch together and also had AW online. We also have a "home office of the week" competition.
- For us, the employees are the most valuable thing we have. Take care of yourselves, ask how they feel.
