Morning, Morning, Morning!
When Governor Priztker mandated the Work from Home (WFH) order my immediate thought was “How will this affect the Brindley Engineering staff?” I was confident with the plan that our leadership team put in place to migrate our entire staff to a remote work model but I didn’t want to lose any of our strong culture. The WFH model would provide the staff with the proper tools and resources to make a smooth transition where their work would not miss a beat. But as the Human Resources Manager, a major focus of mine was to ensure that we maintain continuity and sense of team. I was worried that employees might not thrive if they are forced out of their normal daily work routine. I was also concerned that some of our team may feel alone and isolated and potentially become disengaged. These two major possibilities could slowly damage and deteriorate the special culture we have built at Brindley Engineering.
My task: keep everybody connected!
I thought about it and brainstormed different possible ideas. One idea that came to mind was potentially adapting something that I did every morning before we were in the WFH model and something I have been doing since I started working at Brindley Engineering… Every morning when I entered our headquarters and before I walked into my office I said out loud to the entire office “morning, morning, morning”! I felt that it set the tone for the office each day and I made sure I said it with enthusiasm and excitement no matter how I was feeling that day. I needed to figure out how to implement this action while everybody is working from home. As I thought about it, an e-mail came into my inbox. It was a daily inspirational quote from a good friend. I decided to piggyback on that idea and send out a morning inspirational quote with the subject heading “Morning Morning Morning” as a nod to pre-WFH times. This could keep everyone connected while not being in the office and provide some consistency. Our staff would now get the routine “Morning Morning Morning” email that they were familiar with and an inspirational quote tied to it.
When I hit send on my first e-mail, I wasn’t sure how the staff would receive it. Almost instantly I started to receive positive feedback. I received numerous thank you’s from our team and numerous comments about how much they enjoyed the morning e-mails. I had one teammate mention that he looks forward to the e-mail each morning and it is a great way to start his day. Then, one thing I hoped would happen, happened. I started receiving inspirational quotes from various staff asking me to share their quotes with the whole organization. It quickly became a ritual and a way for us to connect remotely. We have a special culture where we always want to motivate and help each other. Seeing it in action made me smile. I am proud to be part of BE and to work with such thoughtful people.
Mark Manalad, Human Resources Manager, Brindley Engineering
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