Hyperion Tech was ahead of the curve when it comes to the processes and effectiveness of remote working. And this to the benefit of our clients, says Ori Zilbershtein, former director of product for Catena Media and current Chief Business Development Officer at Hyperion Tech.

How has the coronavirus pandemic affected the way businesses operate?

Most businesses relied on face-to-face interactions or at least had the impression that the business cannot operate without everyone being in the same office or the same space. However, the pandemic forced all companies to move work fully online. The notion that everyone needs to be in the same place, at least for iGaming companies, is no more.

Ori Zilbershtein

Since the pandemic we are seeing our partners and clients grow at an increasing rate which is opposite to predictions coming into the pandemic. This is proof that businesses need to innovate and quickly adapt to the new reality and it seems to benefit both employees and the companies themselves. I would say the biggest catalyst of online work was COVID-19 – and this in turn pushed companies to be creative.

What specific effects did the pandemic have on the iGaming industry?

Even before the pandemic, iGaming was technologically advanced to the point that it was well prepared to take the step to full online work. After all, many positions do not need to be present in the office to do the actual work.

Performance actually improved once meetings were no longer a thing – every big company can testify how ‘death by meetings’ is a real issue, and how time is wasted in meetings instead of pushing the operation forward.

The pandemic changed all that as interactions online are focused and more efficient – people get the time to focus and work without distractions and in the convenience of their own home. We have many clients in the iGaming industry and they testify that performance improved a lot since work went full online which yet again was opposite to predictions made coming into it. The only challenge is company culture, as some interactions and bonds cannot be created online and an office is a crucial space for these.

As a response to the pandemic and to protect the well-being of their employees, many businesses shifted to remote working. In your opinion, will this become the new norm?

Hyperion Tech had a remote working policy in place before the pandemic, but right as the pandemic hit we decided to extend it to work from home, with the option to come to the office when needed – this is because some employees cannot work from home, as any parent of two or three children can attest.

Research coming from the UK indicates that the pandemic is now endemic, meaning it is here to stay and we need to live with it and around it. Hybrid solutions of some office time and mostly remote work is the only viable solution to protect the well-being of employees. Now that most companies offer it as the standard, companies who refuse to offer it will simply become less attractive workplaces for employees.

The demand for our talent has grown a lot

Does a flexible approach to remote working add to the resilience of a business?

I believe so. Roles that do not demand full office presence should be allowed to choose when to come in and when not – for instance, setting times where the team needs to be together, for strategising or launching a new product is crucial but for the day-to-day operation there is no need for them to be in an office. Flexible companies add an advantage to employees and become a much more attractive workplace. An employee who feels the company cares about them would want to contribute more and create an environment which is conducive with better performance. Companies who won’t be flexible about remote working are eliminating themselves from the job market.

Has the pandemic affected the way Hyperion Tech operates – and the kind of services that it offers?

At Hyperion Tech we build dedicated development teams for companies who seek to improve or extend their own R&D departments or tech teams. Many companies who opted out of these services pre-pandemic are now working with us, partly because remote work is the same and also because the job market and local talent is hard to come by especially in Malta. Malta is a very good market to recruit C levels or executives for iGaming but not as effective in technological talents – that is where we bridge this gap.

From our clients’ perspective, the pandemic did not change anything, as the teams were always ‘remote’ when it comes to work. Some of our employees preferred working from home and not from the offices we have in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and we allow it. Post-pandemic we moved completely to remote for their safety and some employees come to the office in small numbers. Any employee who wants to work remotely can do so. Tech talents are hard to come by especially if you need dedicated seniors in specific technology which might not be available locally.

Did the pandemic also influence the way you communicate with your clients?

Our clients work with their development teams online – they communicate through Slack or Teams and e-mail, they meet through Zoom or Google Meet and work did not change other than developers showing up to meeting with different backgrounds, as they work from home.

In that sense, Hyperion Tech was ahead of the curve when it comes to the processes and effectiveness of remote working. We have been doing this since 2017 with specific focus on iGaming – which is to the benefit of our partners and clients. We miss visiting our clients’ offices and I’m sure they miss visiting our office but operationally, nothing has changed significantly

What lessons would you take from the general response to the pandemic?

That is a big question as the pandemic has exposed all of our weakest links, as humanity, as society and as people. But we can see that we are resilient and that we can overcome things together. I believe iGaming as an industry adapted pretty quickly in comparison to other industries we work with – some of our clients needed to leave or even shut down (non-iGaming) which was sad to see. We also learned that although we feared a decline of everything we were surprised by the growth and expansion companies experienced. The demand for our talent has grown a lot since the pandemic started.

We also learned that working fully remotely – with a degree of flexibility – is possible and that it benefits performance and the employees.