Welcome to the new office! At home
The pandemic has changed our view on what we call our workplaces. Organizations that preferred to have their employees at the office all the time, were forced to rapidly adapt to a new reality. For others, it just accelerated a movement that had already started. @ Jumbo Tech Campus little changed. Working from home was already widely accepted and even encouraged.
Of course, there were some challenges to overcome when it became mandatory, and we had to stay at home every day. Some meetings became much more difficult to organize or very demanding for attendees when held online, for example. Especially the ones that required brainstorming or planning. So, whenever we were allowed, we would plan meetings and make arrangements to have as few people as possible in our offices at any given time.
At home, some of us suddenly had to share their home office or their kitchen table. Those of us with kids in school had to divide their time between work and their family, especially when schools and daycare centers had to close. But now that life has returned to normal, working from home is still something our people enjoy and do. Even more often than before.
To learn how we experience working from home and balance it with working at the campus, we talked to Tosca, who recently started @JTC straight from university, and to Joran, who has been with us for some years now.
Working from home. What now?
Despite not being able to come to the office, Tosca had no real problem adjusting in her position as an SAP Consultant Trainee. “There’s always someone you can call on to help you. Besides that, I had much to discover and learn, so I spent a substantial part of my time doing that.” Adapting to new situations poses little challenge for Tosca. She has already made a major change in her life: “I studied social sciences, but I wanted to do something more technical, so I took on a master’s in information & Communication Sciences. After that I came across a company that helps people with no background in IT to start a career in it. They helped me land a traineeship @JTC and now I’m learning to turn questions from our business units into solutions within SAP.”
A job close to home and at home
“I’m working from home now, as we speak.” It’s the first thing Joran mentions. He proudly shows us his professional looking home office, which is now equipped to make room for two people. “It’s great to have a room where you can retreat to. It helps me focus. My wife had to work from home too, so we adjusted. When one of us has an online meeting, the other went and worked somewhere else.” He laughs as he adds, “We haven’t had a single fight…yet”. Joran used to work in Eindhoven, in digital marketing. When he sought a job with more depth to it, he found it @ Jumbo Tech Campus. Much to his own surprise, he admits: “I never realized all that is going on behind the scenes of a retail organization the size of Jumbo.” One of the cool aspects of this job for Joran is that he is his own client now. Joran: “I work in a team that aims to inspire our online shoppers, by providing them with tips, recipes, and shopping lists, amongst other things. I bought and still buy all my groceries at Jumbo, so now I get to see the impact we make with our work firsthand. As a bonus, I get to work much closer to home, since I live here in Veghel. The office is just a 15-minute bike ride for me, so even during the pandemic, I visited the office for meetings whenever I could. I still do so, even on the days I work from home. I think it’s only fair to repay Jumbo and my colleagues for their flexibility.”
A great case for remote working
During the pandemic, just like everyone else, the IT professionals @JTC had to work from home fulltime. At the same time, after the first government press conference, online shopping at Jumbo peaked at the same level as during Christmas time. Only this time it lasted much longer. Joran: “That was a great case for us. It showed that everything worked and kept working, even when we could only mostly manage our systems remotely.”
Before working from home became the norm for a while, Joran already did so two days a week. If anything, working from home made him more flexible. Joran: “I developed an even more natural work-life balance. I take the kids to school and sports training, or I pick them up. After that I get back to work. I really became more used to it, so I added an additional day of working at home.” Though it fits his work-life balance well, he also thinks that 3 is the maximum number of days to do so.” Joran: “I still want to go to the office to talk to my colleagues face to face and to work on projects together. I wouldn’t want to miss out on the fun we have as a team. And the relaxed atmosphere is a big plus too.”
Room to grow and learn
There’s another project Joran leaves his home office for. At JTC, we work according to a 70/30% schedule. The 70% goes towards projects that need to be done. The 30% offer room to grow and learn. In Joran’s case, he spends that time working with students from Fontys Hogescholen. “We match groups of students to companies with specific questions or challenges. Everybody benefits from it: it helps us noticing creative answers and solutions, we get a fresh perspective on our field of expertise and early access to talents, and the students gain valuable experience. It’s a great example of the freedom and chances Jumbo Tech Campus gives us.”
Are you curious about the jobs available at Jumbo? Check out our vacancies!