PFA is a pension company in Denmark with its headquarters located in the capital, Copenhagen. They were founded in 1917 by labor market players to create mobility in the Danish labor market and to ensure people in Denmark the freedom to live the lives they want. As of today, PFA has more than 1.3 million individual customers and continues to live up to its pledge, to do more for its customers and society.
On March 11, 2020, as Denmark went on lockdown due to COVID-19, PFA sends all of its 1300 employees home. Overnight their way of working changed drastically.
“At the time, we had a few people who worked from home on rare occasions but nothing at this scale.” — Sebastian Bay, HR Consultant at PFA
It was touch and go at the beginning but after quickly setting up everyone with VPN connections and booking constant online meetings, PFA employees were getting accustomed to the new normal. Nevertheless, HR and Top Management were concerned about the employee’s well-being and overall experience. Their main concerns boiled down to morale, motivation, and connection/feeling part of the team. That’s when we reached out.
We’re always checking in and sharing new solutions with our customers. When PFA heard of our new remote working solution, they wanted to get to work straight away.
PFA wanted to focus on productivity, engagement, and team feeling so together we customized the standard questionnaire of the remote working solution. It only took 1 week from initial contact to distributing the survey with PFA employees.
The results are in…
As part of the solution, the HR department at PFA received an online report and a scorecard and the results were crystal clear and surprising.
Enalyzer’s online reports are brilliant for drilling down into very specific areas and better understanding the collected feedback.
Sebastian Bay, HR Consultant at PFA
Employee’s productivity was not affected and they hoped that PFA would introduce remote working as a standard practice. Nevertheless, though employees enjoyed working from home, the biggest deprivation they experience was a team feeling and connection to their co-workers.
“Our employees were productive and enjoyed working from home. Many, especially those with families, found that they could get everything done when working from home.” — Sebastian Bay, HR Consultant at PFA
So, what’s the verdict?
PFA’s Top Management just announced that everyone is allowed to work from home 2 days a week. They want to reap the benefits of remote working but also have to address that PFA employees want to belong to their workplaces and feel part of the team, therefore meeting up at the office is still of great value.
“Many of our employees expressed great satisfaction at being able to organize their every day at their own pace. We hope that the increased flexibility improves their every day and thus reduces stress.” — Sebastian Bay, HR Consultant at PFA
PFA is trying to get the best of both worlds by listening to their employees and implementing a solution that works for them. Apart from introducing remote working, they want to ensure employees have ergonomic home offices and are therefore currently working on providing chairs and desks for their employees.