Skip to Content

Capgemini Guatemala – compassion is key during COVID-19

Capgemini
August 20, 2020

From the very beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, the Capgemini Guatemala management team that I lead understood the need to help foster a sense of community across our teams working remotely. While this represented a significant challenge, it was also an opportunity to put into practice Capgemini’s seven values – particularly Team Spirit and Fun.

It all starts with staying connected

On top of transporting over 1,000 desktops and other equipment to team members in less than a week, we needed to ensure our teams could connect to the internet. To do this, we worked with a local telecom company to procure 150 modems for those team members who didn’t have access, while also providing equipment to increase bandwidth for colleagues who needed it.

This led to very little or no disruption to the services we delivered to our clients, who were both relieved and thrilled. This helped foster the trust they placed in Capgemini in terms of our ability to deliver services and products.

Redistribution helps keep workloads manageable

In order to help our people maintain a healthy work-life balance, we leveraged a tool called Prompt. This helped us to monitor breaks and lunches, ensuring our people were taking enough time away from their computers during the day.

Prompt also enables our managers and team leaders to see how tasks are, assigned and redistribute them accordingly. This meant that no one person had more work than they can handle, and, as a result, we’ve seen lower burnout and increased productivity from our people. It has also enabled our teams to deliver services to clients with the same speed and excellence they expect from Capgemini.

Getting people up, getting people moving

It’s no secret that exercise has a positive impact on both emotional well-being and physical health. However, with gyms and yoga studios closed across the country and a strictly enforced curfew in the evening, it didn’t leave much opportunity for our people to do physical activity. We knew we needed to provide ways to help keep our team members active – remotely. Luckily, we’re proud to have a certified Zumba instructor in one of our teams – and we organized daily classes via Zoom, which our colleagues could sign up to and get moving!

As a management team, we also understood how important it was to give our colleagues opportunities to socialize with one another. To help foster a sense of fun, we encouraged teammates to get involved in local challenges such as our Mother’s Day photo challenge, and company-wide activities, which included a cash-prize quiz open to all members of Business Services.

Each of these activities helped our team members feel connected – not just to the team they work with on a day-to-day basis, but also to their colleagues around the world.

Getting the basics

One of the biggest challenges we faced was giving our people the time they needed to run errands during the week. With a strict curfew in place, even the simplest tasks, such as grocery shopping or getting to the pharmacy, were proving difficult.

To remedy this, we made sure our team leaders gave all their members an extra hour or two each week to go out and buy the basic supplies. This helped reduce stress across the board and enabled our teams to focus on delivering services to our clients with the same dedication and standards as prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Happier teams means better productivity

Ensuring our teams had the equipment they needed, while also paying attention to their physical and emotional well-being, has not only led to an increase in productivity, it has also helped our people understand how important they are to both Capgemini and our clients, while leading to a better employee experience and increased satisfaction at work.

And what have I learned? I’ve learned that our reality can change in a single day and often we take things for granted. But through it all, I have been reminded of our team’s capability and willingness to quickly adapt to a new reality in every aspect of our lives. I am blown away by the support and compassion we have all shown for each other during this unprecedented time and how grateful we are to work for an organization that cares so deeply for our needs and safety.

Eduardo Castillo is an accomplished leader with over 15 years of experience in business process outsourcing and networking in the US, Canada, and Latin America. His strengths include a strong focus on revenue and cost management, P&L accountability, business development, and strategic planning built around the relationship between operations, financial objectives, and clients’ requirements.