Castillian
Quarterly Newsletter
ISSUE 03 JULY 2021
>> 05 THE LEADER’S GUIDE TO ONBOARDING REMOTE TEAMS >> 11 SHAPING THE FUTURE OF USER EXPERIENCE WITH AI >> 15 DEVELOPING HUMAN CAPITAL AT HOME >> 19 WHY DATA PRIVACY IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN EVER >> 27 A SOFTWARE DEVELOPER’S REMOTE BEST PRACTICES
>> 43 YOUR DATA PRIVACY CHECKLIST >> 45 9 SURVIVAL TIPS FOR REMOTE WORKERS
03 A letter from our CEO and founder, Matthew Camilleri
05 The Leader’s Guide to Onboarding Remote Workers
11 Shaping the Future of User Experience with AI
15 Developing Human
Capital at Home
01
19 Why Data Privacy is More Important Than Ever
27 A Software Developer’s Remote Best Practices
43 Your Data Privacy Checklist
45 9 Survival Tips for Remote Workers
02
A letter from our CEO & Founder, Matthew Camilleri
Some front-line work such as nursing and social care will not be affected at all, however other areas such as Tech and Finance will change significantly with the work place becoming any place where individual and team productivity is at its best and offices become a place for collaboration and in person human engagement.
As we enter what will hopefully be the last phase of the pandemic, it is exciting to see a shiny new world of work emerging, globally.
Whilst I may be accused with many others to be drawing premature conclusions on which work trends will remain, I would love to share our view.
At Castille, we believe the world of work will never be the same again — period. The pandemic has allowed us individually and as organisations to reassess the daily grind in view of the new technologies available, individual jobs tasks, urban population and congestion, skills shortages as well as the existential challenge we all face with the climate crisis.
The pandemic has served a significant knock to many organisations around the world and we at Castille have been working intensely to build resilience but also to better align with the fast evolving needs of employer brands and candidates in the decades to come.
We will be launching Castille Digital 2.0 later this summer, which will incorporate proprietary technology to address our world view for the future of work. Do watch this space.
As always, I am appreciative of all the hard work and commitment shown by our growing teams. Our values, culture, and commitment have never been as strong.
Wishing you all a good summer.
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02
The Leader’s Guide to Onboarding Remote Workers. Laying out the best practices
1. Outline your company goals and culture When onboarding new
for integrating your remote
employees, one of the first goals
employees with your
company vision and culture. In
company culture.
of employers is to spread the explaining your company’s core values, employees can integrate these goals immediately and translate these through their
The onboarding process can be complex, even in
work assignments.
organisations bountiful with resources. It is an especially important process when introducing remote team
Be sure to discuss these goals in a
members to your company, as this includes its own
clear manner, without any room
onboarding implications.
for ambiguity. This means the company website, job
With this in mind, having a structured approach to
description, and interview
onboarding can assist your organisation in better
process leave employees with a
recruiting a remote team. The following guide will walk you
good sense of what their role
through one example of the onboarding process that
entails.
considers the requirements of a remote workforce.
BY ANDREA AMATO
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2.
Organise your paperwork digitally Typically, in office environments employees print, sign, and deliver documents to their respective departments. With a remote workforce, it is worth taking the time to understand and invest in document-signing software. Software such as DocuSign allows for electronic documents to be signed and sent securely within a quick timeframe.
3.
Share your brand’s materials and resources
Before your remote employees begin their first project, it’s worth sharing with them all relevant resources pertaining to the voice of your organisation. These include any brand and content style guides, and other documents that present your company values.
Ensure these documents are up to date and include fine details, from establishing the tone of the company to grammatical considerations. This will help answer creative questions your employees have and bring the community feel home.
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4. Prioritise communication
Where the onboarding process is similar for remote and in-office employees, one of the largest differences lies in communication. Ensuring clear and effective communication to your remote team is important to overcome challenges related to distance and miscommunication.
Before onboarding new members, set a communication standard that is flexible for employers and employees. This will help demonstrate the expectations from both parties throughout. Allow time for questions and feedback, so that these can positively direct your standard for the future.
5.
For any new employee, it is important to know who to reach when encountering any
Establish points of contact
difficulties. It is also helpful to understand who forms part of your team and their respective roles. This is especially true for remote workers, who do not face their team members as you would in the office. A list of relevant contacts in one document is helpful to offer guidance to remote employees.
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6.
Introduce your team
As part of the onboarding process, introducing newcomers to teams across the organisation is a great way to make them feel part of it. For remote employees, this is especially important as they may never get to meet certain colleagues in person.
Peer-to-peer interaction is a strong social value for many individuals, so this should be given priority from the beginning. In introducing team members, employees will understand who’s who in the company and certain team dynamics.
7.
Check-in with your employees Organising regular one-to-one meetings with your employees is a standard practice to keep up with their workload, but they also work to understand how employees are doing. For a remote workforce, this is also needed to fulfil communication opportunities whereby employees feel they can approach their leaders.
Set up consistent meetings with a mixture of team interactions and one-on-one engagements. Allow room for questions and feedback in order to build an understanding working relationship. Regular check-ins remain an important means to support a sense of belongingness with employees, and this support should be a core organisational value.
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8.
The working society has only recently moved in favour of a largely remote workforce, mainly
Set adaptable and clear expectations
due to the Covid-19 pandemic. With these changes, managers and employers should communicate clear workplace expectations that are manageable given the circumstances. Generally speaking, ensure that your new employees understand what is expected from them.
Workplace goals and tasks can be recorded in a shared document so that these can be referred to where needed.
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Complete the onboarding process
A clear and consistent structure to follow effective onboarding will make the process simpler for new employees and employers. In meeting your goals, your employees will understand the company culture and their role, making their job a smooth and enjoyable journey.
Consider what marks the end of the onboarding process and determine when an employee has fully onboarded. Is it after a specific time period, or after a project has been completed? Whatever it is, a strong onboarding process will leave a positive impression on the organisation and your new remote employees.
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Shaping the Future
of User Experience with AI
BY ANDREA AMATO
Every week, the Castille Product team meet to discuss the ongoing development of a new Digital platform. The platform follows a user’s career journey f rom their first employment to their retirement. Naturally, a lot of focus on user experience (UX) led to a recurring question within the team: how can we use AI to support UX? We knew that a digital revolution was underway wherein constructing an online platform necessitates the use of AI technology.
Any Product or Design team will know that constructing a feasible UX is important to ensure smooth user journeys, engagement, and the return of these users to the product. Dialogue around AI typically begins a worrying narrative where robots will replace human involvement, but the
AI& UX 11
relationship between AI and UX is more complex. Empathy—the ability to share and understand the feelings of another individual, or ‘knowing what it’s like to walk in someone else’s shoes’—is a unique human trait that computers have not yet grasped.
AI technology works on the premise that it simulates human intelligence, including emotional attributes. Empathy can be difficult to mimic for AI systems, as human emotions are often nuance. For example, humans are able to smile and appear happy even when feeling the complete opposite. Artificial Empathy is a popular area of research for this reason, in that researchers must consider the complexities of human emotions, including
physical and behavioural manifestations of emotion, so that AI can learn to mimic it effectively.
With this in mind, it makes sense that AI and UX collaborate with one another, rather than have one replace the other. It is a more worthy perspective to interpret AI alongside other emerging technologies to allow design and product teams to create products in an expressive and intuitive way. In other words, the general concern where AI will replace jobs is not the reality—wherein truth, AI creates more jobs than it does replace, and one of these is to be able to work alongside designers.
How AI Collaborates with UX
AI can help construct robust design systems. Keeping products consistent with users by using AI to provide metrics on user behaviour, allows designers to interpret data on user interaction with products. In this way, components and functions of a product can be optimised to deliver better results to the user. A design system hosts a number of modules and elements that supports a company’s brand and keeping this consistent throughout the design process is imperative to releasing a good product.
Additionally, AI allows for generation of large quantities of data that can be analysed to drive better UX. Every time a user
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interacts with a design system, such as an application or website, data is captured. Whilst AI collects data, specialists are able to focus on analysing data in depth.
Perhaps one of the more popular reasons AI integrates in products is to provide a personalised user experience. AI processes user data and amends current models for future use. The selling point here is pretty conclusive, the more personalisation in user experience leads to more relevance for users, which leads to better conversion rates.
AI Improves UX with Testing
For designers, testing is an integral phase in developing a product. A number of metrics are available to understand user behaviour, such as user flow and the session time of users. If your website generates a lot of traffic, it would be easier to apply AI to gather that data for you. AI technology is able to collect data at a high-volume and rapid speed, and having this data is important for experimentation of new ideas and to run applicable, supportive tests.
Another popular testing method is A/B testing. An experimental research methodology, A/B tests work by showcasing two variants of a product. For example, designers might wonder whether the positioning of a call-to-action button is more functional at the
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top or end of a page. The A/B test would be created with two designs: One where the button is at the top, the other where the button is at the end of the page. A/B tests apply similar statistical approaches in that hypotheses drive the quality of a test.
AI works with A/B testing effectively because it eliminates bias. The use of data generated by AI will answer whether one design works better through statistical validation and reliability. Eventually, AI will develop to collect A/B test and heatmap data and analyse it quicker than humans can. With AI, UX teams can follow data-driven approaches more effectively.
As AI encompasses many technologies such as cloud software and big data, there are a number of ways to integrate AI to support UX. As a versatile technology, businesses can align their goals and objectives to meet AI intuition.
product.
All in all, AI is great for testing and collecting behavioural data, but human intervention is still valuable in terms of UX. AI cannot handle complex design tasks as yet. UX is a priority, AI works as an additional insights tool.
The goal is to work with AI and technology to remove the need to conduct repetitive tasks, allowing designers and teams to focus their minds on strategy implementation. It is time to consider AI with an opportunist lens and not think against it.
Stay tuned to Castille Resources and learn how we incorporate AI to improve UX. Our new Digital platform launches this summer, and we look forward to meeting you.
AI and UX Work Well Together
No matter the means you choose to apply AI technology to your product, a common end goal between AI and UX is to create sustainable and deeper human connections. Technology offers possibilities that improve social listening, data analysis, among others, that tailors an effective and personal user journey with a
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Developing Human Capital at Home BY ANDREA AMATO
What do we know about remote employee development and skills training? Employee development and the
previous ones. Therefore,
growing importance of human
employee development remains
capital remains an invaluable
an important consideration in
investment for employers and
successfully progressing
firms. HR professionals believe
organisations.
this development comes from targeted skills training
In adapting learning programs to
(PricewaterhouseCoopers
take place virtually, prioritise
[PwC], 2016). As a result, most
how these will be organised
organisations following a
including relevant stakeholders.
globalised approach invest in
Other important details to
training and development
consider include the platform
functions as part of their
where these programs will take
organisational strategies.
place and the particular topics that suit an online environment.
Although a lot of discussion surrounding employee
Explore a multitude of strategies
development stems from the
that meet your business
responsibility of the employer,
requirements and establish novel
employees want to train too.
practices that supports your new
PwC’s (2021) latest survey found
virtual learning program.
that 77% of employees are ready to train in new skills or retrain
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Create a Dedicated Learning Team
Effective communication is always important in organisations, and this is especially true for virtual teams. Your learning team should be organised according to relevant stakeholders such as IT technicians and HR personnel. Keep a calendar available to all employees so lessons can be organised efficiently.
Define clear action points and what to do if a learning program is cancelled or employees require further information. Prioritise relevant and important lessons such as onboarding information and remote management skills.
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Support your Employees During In-office Programs
Your organisation may choose to hold certain learning programs in the office rather than online. With an ongoing pandemic, ensure your employees feel safe and prepare a document outlining the learning program and what protective measures your organisation will apply accordingly.
For example, you can set up learning stations that are socially distant. Follow reliable sources such as the WHO where updated regulations can influence how your learning programs take place in-person.
For those who do not feel comfortable to come to the office yet, you can decide to hold a hybrid learning program that takes place both in office and online. If you choose to go ahead with this model, ensure your employees have the necessary tools required for the lesson to take place virtually.
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Promote E-learning
It is no secret that the working society will continue to benefit from technological advances. E-learning, simplistically defined as formalised teaching through the aid of digital resources, was popular before the pandemic. The working society is beginning to move remote and with it the need to maintain workplace collaboration.
E-learning is a great way to make employees feel that they are working together to achieve a common goal. Where possible, social opportunities can take place with your learning programs such as an online discussion board. Even during challenging times, e-learning can provide an enjoyable platform where colleagues and employers unite to catch up and collaborate.
Prioritise your Employees
The pandemic has undoubtedly caused job security concerns globally, contributing to people’s anxieties about the future. Whatever learning platform your organisation chooses to apply, communicate with your employees their needs and what training you can provide to ensure they adapt comfortably to a new working environment. Ensure your employees all have access to your learning platform and that there are no obstacles.
Upskilling and training opportunities are great ways to support your employees and develop their skills on an equal ground. Constructing a collaborative platform will leave employees the onus to learn with a sense of purpose, creating a positive organisational culture that drives your company forward.
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Why
DATA PRIVACY is more important than ever.
BY VIKASH LALSING
WHAT IS DATA PRIVACY? It can be difficult to understand what data privacy is in the digital world and its importance.
Let’s imagine that in our daily lives, we are constantly followed by a stranger during any activity, such as a visit to the doctor, or listening in on conversations between family and friends. Our privacy determines our choice in what we want to keep private, semi-public, and public. In other words, data privacy determines who we are in the digital world and what we choose to disclose. Its importance is on equal terms with our daily, physical lives.
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WHY DOES DATA PRIVACY MATTER? Privacy is a fundamental human right and is included in the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
It underpins human dignity which is defined for European Union citizens under the right to dignity and is therefore a right to freedom.
Data privacy defines how our personal information should be handled based on its relative importance in the
digital world. In the wrong hands, criminals can use personal information to impersonate people and commit illegal activities. These include fraud, larceny or accessing illegal/controversial online contents. It is therefore important that we exercise our fundamental human rights and protect ourselves through data privacy measures.
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W H AT A R E O U R D ATA P R I VA C Y R I G H T S? Technology has allowed companies to make use of personal data including demographic information and preferences to generate revenues through targeted online advertising. Data privacy rights enable individuals to have control on how their personal data is collected, stored, used, and commercialised. Through the creation of data privacy regulations in various jurisdictions such as GDPR, Data Protection Act, etc, allows individuals the following personal data privacy rights:
01
TO BE INFORMED
We’ve the right to know what, how, and when our personal data is being collected. Often, our data is collected f rom registering on a website or aggregating our data f rom what is available online. Websites should be transparent and keep users informed, especially how our data is being stored and whether it will be shared or sold to third parties. Transparency is key to learn whether our data is used for purposes other than initially intended.
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02
ACCESS OUR PERSONAL DATA
We need to be able to access all personal data collected on our behalf and obtain a copy of the data. Any company that collects personal data should attend to access requests and provide copies of all information held on the individual. Such information includes personal details, text messages, etc.
RECTIFICATION
03 At times, information needs to be changed or updated, such as an address. As data subjects, we should be able to request our personal data be amended accordingly.
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04
TO BE FORGOTTEN
We may want to have our personal information deleted on a website or company that collected it. We’ve the right to request deletion of all data held on our behalf and receive confirmation that our data has been securely deleted.
PORTABILITY
05 If we’d like to change insurance provider, we should be able to request our current provider to give us a copy of our personal data in a format that can be easily used by the new provider. This helps alleviate the personal need to submit data and historical records as data subjects.
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06
TO RESTRICT AND/OR OBJECT PROCESSING
Personal data is collected for data subjects to interact with the company or website collecting it. In the instance where we do not want our personal data processed, we can request a processing restriction where the data will not be deleted but cannot be used. If the intent for which the data was collected changes, or there is a need for a company or website to process your data differently, we may object to this processing too.
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07
TO PREVENT AUTOMATED PROFILING
There are instances where automated processes may profile us based on our personal data without human intervention. This may be used to determine whether a product or service can be offered to us. In practice, this kind of processing can limit the products or services of our choice. We can challenge profiling and request that human intervention is affecting our processes.
It is true that a lot can be said about data privacy alongside our human rights. Though learning the gist of data protective measures is worth the time—for the risk of data breaches can cause egregious consequences.
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<< a software developer’s remote best practices >> ANDREA AMATO IN CONVERSATION WITH MOHAMMED NADEEM KORUMTELLEA AND VINAJ JHUMAN
Software developers are at the forefront of digitisation, amending current technologies to suit an era that favours the latest tech inventions. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the working society forcefully moved remote, and quickly had to adapt to available technologies such as video conferencing software to simulate a virtual office environment.
27
As time goes on, employees are becoming more comfortable with the idea of working from home. Supportively, an abundance of research following workplace trends presents a general want for remote opportunities. I spoke with some of our software developers at Castille for their remote work advice, as the individuals who are assisting this digital revolution.
Mohammed Nadeem Korumtallea Software Technical Lead
Can you describe your role at Castille and tell me a bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis? I am a Software Technology Lead, and I am mainly involved in software development and assisting clients with issues related to their applications. On top of that, I am in constant communication with our clients and have meetings on a daily basis.
29
My main challenge has been to find the right balance between work and family time. 30
Can you give me an example of a challenge you experienced whilst working remotely and how you overcame that challenge?
Personally, I enjoy working
There isn’t much I can do
f rom home and avoid the
about that, though
morning and evening
thankfully there are some
traffic jams. They were
noise-filtering apps
costing me three hours
available online which I
daily. Now, I’ve more time
installed. I also managed to
for sleep and leisure. My
set up my work space away
main challenge has been
f rom my daughter's playing
to find the right balance
area.
between work and family time. I have two daughters,
I am thankful to my
one who is two years old
colleagues who understand
and the other two months
that these are situations
old. That pretty much
that do occur, and present
explains the challenge!
this understanding when meetings are interrupted.
Often, while attending meetings, my daughters will pop up and start shouting or crying.
31
If you have
a noise problem
at home, consider installing a noise-filter application! 32
How do you see remote work evolving in the future?
Remote work has always
Also, the ability to work
been a common solution,
from home is becoming a
mainly in the IT sector. At
‘must-have’ criterion in job
Castille, we’ve chosen to
searches nowadays. This is
remain remote first even
the new normal and people
after the pandemic. This
will have to adapt sooner
applies to both our offices
rather than later.
in Mauritius and Malta. Recent surveys show that people working remotely are not only happier and healthier, but they are actually more productive.
Messaging apps are updating their platforms to enhance online meeting experiences, internet connections are being upgraded everywhere, and companies are providing up-to-date laptops for employees to work easily from home.
33
This is the new normal and people will have
to adapt sooner rather than later. 34
Vinay Jhuman Development Lead
Can you describe your role at Castille and tell me a bit about what you do on a day-to-day basis? As a Development
I represent the
Manager at Castille,
software team in
my main role is to plan,
meetings, and I
direct, and coordinate
monitor, evaluate, and
all activities related to
ensure the completion
internal projects
of tasks whilst
development by setting
providing technical
attainable goals to
support to the team
team members. In
and other stakeholders
order for the project to
involved in internal
be finished on time, I
projects.
provide guidance to team members and encourage them to work productively whilst ensuring a timeline is followed.
35
I provide guidance
to team members and encourage them to work productively. 36
What do you enjoy about working remotely?
I love the work-life balance that working from home offers. Working from home allows me to begin my work day sooner. I can skip traffic and avoid the tiredness and stress that comes with it, which then leaves me with two and a half more hours daily that I can dedicate to my job.
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Working from home allows me to begin my work day sooner. 38
How do you think teams can remain connected whilst working remotely?
Well, working from home does not mean being alone. At Castille, we have regular yoga sessions through Zoom and birthday greetings through Microsoft Teams, which I think is a good initiative to keep us connected. We can also have virtual morning breakfasts or coffee breaks to alleviate the day. A space where we can host virtual social events where we can chat and share ideas. There are a lot of ways to get teams to remain connected.
39
There are a lot of ways to get teams to remain connected.
40
How do you think leaders can support their remote teams?
Moving to a remote work environment can be challenging for maintaining socialisation and connection. However, with some creativity, one can keep teams motivated and connected.
For leaders, performing at a high level whilst working f rom home creates role-models who are educative, inspiring, and able to ignite positive action in their remote teams. One of the best things leaders can do is to be transparent and forthcoming with teams as much as possible and maintain regular video calls to support employees.
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One of the best things leaders can do is to be transparent and forthcoming with teams. 42
Your Data Privacy Checklist BY VIKASH LALSING As we learned beforehand, data privacy is especially important as we consume more services and products digitally. We therefore have to protect our personal data adequately and ensure that our rights are abided to.
43
Here is your data privacy checklist to ensure your personal information is protected for the long haul. Read and understand any privacy policy available when providing personal data. These are meant to be written clearly as per data privacy laws, to avoid confusion for the general consumer.
Only provide necessary information when there is legal justification for a company or website to own it. Do not provide more information that is further than what is required.
Learn about security practices that keep your personal data safe with all your devices. This includes securing your mobile and computer with a password and ensuring a secure password for your WiFi.
Before discarding documents that contain personal information, ensure these are shred first, including receipts and bank or credit card statements.
Do not hesitate to exercise your data privacy rights when needed. If you no longer require a service, request your personal data to be deleted.
Apply these practices for yourself and others. If you handle personal data for other persons, ensure that you use the same level of protection that you would when treating your own personal data.
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9
Survival Tips for
Remote Workers BY LUIGI MUSCAT FILLETTI
As remote working becomes a maintsay across many professional disciplines, the following pages feature nine essential tips for remote workers to help them develop a healthy and productive routine.
45
46
Dress and get
ready for the day. 47
1
Ease into your mornings. 49
2
Create a designated workspace.
51
3
Take regular, timed breaks 53
4
Eat a nutritious lunch
and stay hydrated. 55
5
Schedule time for workouts. 57
6
Have a clock-out time
to avoid over-working. 59
7
Make time for self-care.
61
8
Keep a consistent
sleep schedule. 63
9
Castillian contributors Andrea Amato Junior Research & Content Officer Editorial & Writing
Luigi Muscat Filletti Junior UX Designer Editorial Design
Matthew Camilleri CEO and Founder who consistently supports our Quarterly Newsletters. Castille’s Letter pg.5
Chris Xuereb, Nikki Farrugia, & Joseph Glynn Our senior managers across the Digital/Product, Talent Acquisition & Advisory,
and Human Capital teams respectively, who generated the beginnings of our ideas
toward this publication.
Vikash Lalsing Our global Shared Services and DPO manager who guest wrote articles covering data privacy. Why Data Privacy is More Important Than Ever pg.19 Your Data Privacy Checklist pg.43
Tijana Tufek Our senior finance consultant who joined in a number of discussions surrounding workplace
trends that led to the creation of The Leader’s Guide to Onboarding Remote Workers pg.05
Sofia Ferreira Our tech consultant knowledgeable about pressing concerns around the demand and shortage of
tech job positions that led to the creation of Developing Human Capital at Home pg.15
Jasbeer Keramuth Our senior human capital consultant and frequent Quarterly Newsletter contributor who provides
a number of ideas and insights that led to the creation of Nine Survival Tips for Remote Workers pg.15
and A Software Developer’s Remote Best Practices pg.27
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We’d love to
hear f rom you! Got any feedback or ideas for our
future newsletters? Let us know.
hr@castilleresources.com
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