Transcript

PORNNARAI NILDUANG:

Hi, my name's Ploy. I work for iungo Solutions. And I'm their Human Resources and Recruitment Executive. So iungo is a start-up creative technologies company in south Wales. We design and build immersive learning within Workplace 4.0.

I would define Workplace 4.0 as immersive learning, so a lot of technology based within manufacturing, engineering, and industries alike. So we design virtual reality courses that can be used for multiple, instead of the traditional training day. So we do all our courses like that. We've partnered with different colleges to design courses within expectations and customisable of the new industry for that's coming into play.

What we do in the company is really well. So there isn't a set time that we need to come in, so we have our core hours, which will normally have our main touchpoints and meetings. But I think it's just the perception of not having that. We don't really micromanage. We don't – there isn't a check in, you know, like the traditional office where you where you check in your time, there's a timesheet. There's nothing like that.

I remember being in my little office at home because we were digitally native, so we didn't have an office space back then. So it was it was strange. I didn't really know what to do when I – we're very flexible, so we don't have a time where we say, oh, this is the time that we start and we expect you to be online. So I think that aspect was quite new, so I chose a time. And I didn't really know at the time, we were a team of 10, now we're a team of 20. So it was definitely strange. I was a bit confused before we had our daily meetings. But after that, it was quite clear of what my responsibilities were for the day, for the week. And then having daily touchpoints with my manager was really helpful. So we used WhatsApp quite a bit, so that informal communication really built up our relationship and it was quite easy, first day, overall.

So my onboarding experience started right after I signed the contract. Depending on the immediate starts, we normally give – we normally like to have one to two formal chats with the new starter. So for me, I had one chat with the CEO and my manager. We had to chat about the employment contract, any questions I had, and they run through with what the company was, what they stand for, and their beliefs, their the missions. And I had a more in-depth chat with my manager. We had a lot of – we had a lot of common things within our personalities. So it was quite nice to go into my first day knowing my manager was there. I had her phone number if I needed to call her. Everything was set up through WhatsApp for informal communication. All of my formal communications, like my Gmail and stuff, was already set up, so I had already, before I even started, built a network with my team before I even met them.

So you behave differently online compared to your way – from your personal life to your work life. So you will have to conduct yourself in a in a way whether it be electronically on emails or like in meetings, so you just familiarise yourself with that. Conduct yourself accordingly to your corporate policies and guidelines. Obviously, when you are at home in your own space, you can do whatever you want, so there are some restrictions probably depending on your corporate and your organisation. So I'd say that's the main difference, is a little bit limited to what you do, but you should try to follow an organisation that at least you can have a sense of self working there, rather than being completely different person.

The main things that you'd need to consider while working remotely I think are your environment and your equipment. So in terms of your equipment, you need to make sure that you have all the necessary equipment, such as your laptop, any tablets, or any extra screens that you might need to help you work a bit better, and your headphones if you're working outside the office, making sure that your, all of your software is up to date to prevent any cyber attacks.

In terms of your environment, if you're working remotely, depending on your home situation, you might be lucky enough to have an office. I say decorate it how you want. Because at the end of the day, it is your home. You need to feel relaxed, motivated. So just put a lot of customisation into it. I would make sure that, you know, to be respectful. Because depending on what your background is, just be respectful of your colleagues as they'll see you on camera, or at least we tend to just to gauge more in terms of meetings, and teamwork, and that.

The experience of working remotely and in the office are completely different. I think when people say, when people hear that you work remotely or you work flexible, they're very – they're like, oh, you know, you have such an easy life. I have to go into the office every day. And they don’t, they fail to see that it is quite isolating working from home. It's lucky enough that we have daily touch points, so we get to see the team's face at least, even though it's digitally. So it can be quite isolating at times, if you don't have any of the meetings or the touchpoints.

So you know when you're working from home, you haven't got the luxury of like looking over the shoulder in an office and saying, hey, can you help me with this? Or you know, I've got this paperwork – at least in my department anyways – I got this paperwork that I need you to fill in, can you please fill it in now? I know you got five.

So, yeah, it's when we are in the office, I definitely take advantage of those if I need any paperwork from anyone, or if I need to speak to anyone privately, or sensitive information. I tend to use that as – you know, scheduling meetings and stuff can be a bit – depending on their day can be a bit daunting as they've got, you know, five or six meetings that day. You can't really squeeze it in. So it's quite good to see them in the office and having that human contact, shall we say.

Working in HR, I find it easier working in the office from time to time. As I think when I send out a mass email about a certain topic or if I send out contract renewals and stuff, and depending on that person, if they do get a lot of emails, it can get filtered down quite easily, depending on their role. So I like working here as I can just remind them like, hey, I’ve got this. I need you to fill out. Or, I find working collaboratively is much easier, as well, especially if you've got like a whiteboard and paper.

We have what we call a Jamboard on Google that we use quite a bit. But it's quite different working from the office. You can see and bounce ideas off each other. And it's much easier to do collaborative work in the office than online. I find, at least.

I’d say the advantages is that due to some of the nature of my role in HR, I find that I deal a lot with confidential information and quite sensitive information. So working from home, I don't have to worry about it, you know, another team member walking past to look at over my screen and stuff like that. So I do find it much easier in terms of like collecting documents, drafting up those confidential documents before they're released. It's much easier at home because I haven't got to worry about those sort of issues.

I think in the future, the world of work is going to be a bit different from what you'd imagine. So I think a lot of people would say it would be quite technology based and I do believe in that. I think that there will be a lot of work in terms of the people that run those computers, robots, or the AI and stuff. So I think it will be quite flexible and hybrid working, at least much more of it.

I think – I hope that hybrid working will eliminate the traditional 9 to 5 that we have. I think there's going to be a higher level of healthy work–life balance, and just people who enjoy their roles. I think the idea of the traditional 9 to 5 is slowly going out the window as people learn that there's more in life than the work. So I think it's definitely going to be quite hybrid and flexible in terms of that at least.

So I see a lot of large corporates still doing hybrid, even though COVID has, I think has kind of dissolved as much – it's how much influence these days. So a lot of people are still working from home. A lot of people have transitioned, so maybe like 25% of the time in the office, or like 50% of the time. So I see a lot of – or I've heard a lot of corporate companies shutting down some parts, for example, if they hired three floors, they're now only hiring one. And they give the options to their employees to come into the office and book out timeslots, if they wish to.

I think us as a generation – I think the new generation coming into the workplace next really expects more than the traditional 9 to 5. So they understand now that there are more ways of making money and gaining financial stability than working in an office job, a desk job from like 9 to 5, where they can work flexibly. They can have a better work/life balance. They can work less but still making the same amount of money, or they can, you know, not travel for 2 hours at a time to commute back and forth to work. And I think it really has become an expectation now, rather than a perk or a benefit of not going into the office.