The Covid-19 lockdowns changed everything for the Woods Engineering department. Read on to find out the challenges they faced and how they overcame them.

Woods has always been a very much 1-1, face-to-face type of company. We would meet with our team members and our clients face to face so we knew exactly what was needed, and what their expectations were, and we could make sure they understood what our expectations were too.

But then with the Covid-19 alert level restrictions, how we operated had to completely change. Having to suddenly find a way to communicate and still maintain that level of clarity without face to face interactions was a big challenge. Thankfully, I think we managed to overcome it and adapt quite well.

On managing employee wellbeing, mentoring, and client deadlines.

Along with the high risk of a communication breakdown, it was much harder to gauge how the crew were doing. Not just at work, but also how they were doing within themselves. Previously, we could just walk up to them in the office. Even just making eye contact, you could tell if someone was feeling stressed or not feeling right - you would spot it straight away. It’s very hard to do that when can’t read the other person’s body language.

Amidst all the disruption, we also needed to make sure our younger engineers continued to receive mentoring and direction, and of course that we were keeping to clients’ deadlines. How did we overcome these challenges? Good communication.

All our team managers, including myself, were talking to our crew every day, just to make sure they were okay, they knew what they needed to be doing, and we could address any concerns they had. We were also regularly talking with Council, contractors, and our clients to keep them updated and informed about any issues that arose as a result of the lockdowns.

On managing the physical and technical aspects of transitioning to remote work.

Thankfully, before COVID-19 hit, we were working with many of our team members on the possibility of working from home due to Auckland’s traffic congestion. The idea was that they would be able to work from home and come into the office for any critical meetings or training etc. This was well under development, so we already had crews and staff members with home office setups before the lockdowns. It actually worked out quite well.

We obviously had all of the technical issues that come with transitioning an entire workforce to remote work, but they were all quite easily solved. We arranged licenses for Teams, Zooms, and all the design programs we use to be accessed remotely. The main impact of the lockdown was humanitarian – it was more about the people: our team, our clients, and our relationships with Council organisations.

On new ways of working, silver linings, and backup plans

Previously, we had been very dependent on how we normally operated, and not on adaptability. It was certainly never tested to that extent before. One of the positives to come out of the lockdowns is that we have a lot less dependency on working in the office now. We still believe that it is the best way to meet people - both clients and the team - but we've set up systems that make it quite workable to communicate remotely.

It was a real revelation for me seeing how adaptive our team is; how quickly and how easily they adapted to a new way of working. Things were changing sometimes on a daily basis - and they were radical changes – but they took a totally different system and managed it very well.

All those strange challenges that none of us were expecting, we managed to get through it and adapt really quick. It really gives us confidence moving forward that whatever gets thrown at us - whether it is another lockdown or something else - our crew can adapt, and we have the backup systems to work through it.

Brian Flood - Director & Principal Engineer