How Cybalink Has Helped Both Clients and Its Own People During Difficult Times
How has Cybalink continued offering quality services where others struggle? Read what our clients and team have to say.
When the world was forced into change it was a sink or swim situation for most businesses. But here at Cybalink we ensured we swam and provided lifeboats for as many people as we could.
We are committed to working in the best interests of our clients and team and making a positive community impact.
By doing that, we’ve ensured a near-seamless transition into a working structure to meet the challenges of our ever-changing environment. We wanted to find out what members of our team thought about our response to coronavirus.
So, we sent out a survey asking how our response to the outbreak helped them. And in doing that, we discovered how Cybalink has continued to deliver services for our clients and people.
Here are five ways how we have kept our teams happy and operational during this trying time.
The Philippines went into a strict lockdown off the back of a short 24-hour notice period, resulting in checkpoints and restriction of all movements. As a result, our personnel had no means to access the Cybalink office unless they were living right next door.
Cybalink reacted with urgency to the situation. They were successful in deploying all necessary hardware and equipment to locations outside the metro within 5 days of the announcement. And this was made possible in spite of having no access to malls that sold IT equipment and other accessories.
The surveys of both our people and our clients proved to us that we responded well and we’re not afraid of change and implementing new processes or systems that only improve the environment for our team and experience for our clients.
Read from our clients and people on how we are continuing to develop and support in areas of:Adapting to Change
Cybalink Solutions Client – Trusted Regional Commercial Construction Company
When the pandemic forced the closure of thousands of Australian businesses, a Finance Manager at an award-winning regional commercial construction company started to worry. Being in a large-scale construction company, she had some concerns about her industry. In particular, she highlighted the following:
Not knowing if the government was going to stop construction in Australia, too.
Thankfully, that didn’t happen. Australia kept its construction industry going, which meant she and her team could keep working. But she soon needed to face other challenges. As a Cybalink client, she has a team of three quantity surveyors and two accountants working offshore. Would they be able to keep performing their roles for her business? Fortunately, yes, as Cybalink was ready to ensure the support needed was there. Our rapid response to the crisis during its early stages allowed us to get our people ready to work from home. And because of that, our client was able to return to a business as usual situation far quicker than she anticipated. When we asked her why she thought this happened, she had a simple response:
[Cybalink] communicated. [You] got equipment to the team without question.
Prioritising Our Team
Kenny Sasan
The biggest concern that many of our people had was that they’d be unable to work. This would result in a loss of income that could make their living situations difficult. It’s certainly a worry that Kenny had. A Client Services and Performance Supervisor, he’s worked at Cybalink for a little over a year. He pointed out that his partner isn’t able to work from home due to lockdown. This placed increased pressure on him to be the breadwinner for his family – at least for the time being. Cybalink made sure he could fill that role. As with all of our other team members, we provided Kenny with the equipment he needed to work from home. And in doing that, we prioritised the well-being and working situations of our people.
As Kenny himself put it:
I am grateful to be part of the Cybalink Team. The team is always the main priority and Cybalink ensured that they were able to keep their job, whilst also maintaining their safety in the middle of this pandemic.
We knew that prioritising our people was the key concern when lockdown hit. If you don’t do that, you end up with an unhappy and unmotivated team. And in this situation, you’d end up with a team that isn’t even able to work. By putting our people first, we ensured they could continue offering what our clients need.
A Fast Response
John Virgil B. Arlante
John is a quality surveyor and estimator. Having worked at Cybalink for almost two years, he’s grown accustomed to working in our offices. That’s what made going into lockdown such a huge challenge for him:
In the initial days of lockdown, it was challenging because I was working with my own PC, and some of my files were on my office desktop.
Forced to work from home, John didn’t have everything that he needed to get his job done. It was a challenge for him to work only with his own equipment. And with his province located 2 hours away from Manila, going back to the office was not possible for him. But we reacted rapidly.
And as John pointed out:
But within a week, everything became smooth as soon as my office desktop was delivered.
In less than a week, we delivered all relevant office equipment to him and all our team members. The speed of this response is a key component of how we’ve kept our clients’ teams operational. With the right equipment on hand, John can now focus on what he does best: Providing an amazing service to our clients.
Continued Adaptation
Louishane V. De Leon
Even after ensuring our people had the equipment that they needed, we didn’t rest on our laurels. We knew our teams would need continued support from us to continue working at full effectiveness. This is especially the case for our HR professional, like Louishane. She works as a HR Data Management Specialist in our team. Her role is to help our clients manage their HR data for over 6000 employees to ensure their construction sites operate effectively. Louishane pointed out that our work with our team didn’t just end with getting them set up:
One thing that I appreciate the most about Cybalink is the effort it exerts, and continually exerts, on fixing/arranging the best possible solution during this unprecedented event. Like for instance, the office remained open for those who had the means and could still report in the office.
Adaptability is the key to success in these unprecedented times. By providing our people with as many options as possible, we help them to work in a way that suits them. This has a massive impact on internal motivation levels. And with help from continued feedback, we continue to adapt our response to ensure maximum productivity. Again, this is a very good thing for our clients. They see little or no disruption because we’ve provided our people with what they need to perform.
Supporting Families
Cybalink HR Data Management Specialist
Lockdown hit our teams in the Philippines pretty hard. One day, they were able to go into work. Next, they couldn’t come into the offices at all! John already mentioned the challenges in connection with the lockdown. For that first week, it was a scramble on our part to get our teams operational again. And while we managed it very quickly, some of our people couldn’t work during that first week. Among them was one of our HR Data Management Specialists. He spent the first week of lockdown unable to work, which naturally led to concerns about his pay. He worried that he wouldn’t receive payment if he couldn’t work.
But we ensured that this wasn’t the case. In his survey, the team member pointed out the measures we took to support our people during that trying first week:
Even though we were not totally working from the day that the government announced the lockdown, it helped that the company gave us consideration especially during those times.
In other words, we ensured that our people still had financial support even when they couldn’t work. This ensured stability for them as they adjusted to new working conditions. And we believe this is directly reflected in the quality of work that our people continue to provide to clients.
The Creation of Systems That We May Use Going Forward
Kim Brian O. Baltazar
As part of the surveys for our people, we asked everybody how working from home has affected them. What changes have they seen? And have they enjoyed any benefits from this new style of working? Kim is one of our quantity surveyors and estimators. He has been with us for a year and 4 months and he revealed an unexpected benefit of working from home:
I find it easier and more convenient working from home because of the following reasons: I do not have to travel going to work, I do not need to rent a boarding house to live in during weekdays. Lastly, I have more time to spend with my family.
This is invaluable feedback for us going forward.
We Continue to Adapt
The surveys of both our people and our clients proved to us that we responded beyond expectations to the unprecedented situation.
We learnt WE:
- Are not afraid of change.
- Are dynamic and resilient.
- Are able to implement new systems and processes with flexibility and speed.
- Never give up.
- Are committed to working in the best interests of our clients and our people.
And by doing that, we ensured a near-seamless transition into the work from home “new normal”.
Perhaps we could help you to do the same.
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