How to Include Pandemic-Related Remote Work Achievements on Your Resume
Most companies had to pivot in some shape or form due to the COVID-19 pandemic. If your work included spearheading pandemic-related adjustments, make sure to note those achievements on your resume! If you’re not sure how, here are a few tips.
Updated December 2022.
By: Ashley Dolar | Contributor for Let’s Eat, Grandma
The pandemic touched every aspect of our lives in 2020, and it ushered in an entirely new remote work environment. It also upended the financial projections, technical requirements, policies, and procedures of nearly every organization overnight.
If you’re working on your resume right now, you need to take credit for how you helped deal with all of that!
No matter what industry you worked in during the pandemic, you probably had to shift your understanding of “business as usual” and quickly adapt to ever-changing science, information, and circumstances. All of these quick-thinking pandemic maneuvers count as work achievements, and they should be front and center on your resume.
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If you are still trying to search your brain for professional accomplishments dating back to March 2020, here are a few examples to get you started:
Remote & Hybrid Teams
Did you champion daily Zoom check-ins that increased your team’s productivity? Put it in your resume! Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
It’s hard to believe that only 20% of workers were using the work-from-home model in 2019. As you might expect, that number jumped to 71% during the height of the pandemic, but experts predict that it will level out to around 22% by 2025.
How did the majority of the 164.6 million people in the American labor force move to remote work in one month’s time? Hint: A lot of people were behind the scenes making that transition happen, probably while drinking way too much homebrewed coffee!
If you were one of those over-caffeinated magicians who set up a remote or hybrid workforce, you can break down the parts of that achievement into bullet points for your resume that might look something like these.
Be sure to add your own details and metrics to these examples:
- Established a fully remote, 3,500-person team across three different time zones with minimal downtime
- Created new hybrid work schedules to accommodate for social distancing for six scientists working in a lab environment
New Business Strategies
The pandemic caused an abrupt change in consumer habits across the board from small businesses to corporate giants. For example, grocery stores were overwhelmed by demand while sit-down restaurants had to close their doors. Each type of establishment had their own challenges, and it was up to organizational leaders to make up the gap.
If you worked in one of the millions of businesses who experienced negative impacts from COVID-19, how did you cope? How did you get your company back on track? These types of accomplishments show soft skills like perseverance and determination — not to mention potential increased revenue or cost savings — and deserve top billing on your resume.
Be sure to describe the operations, sales, or marketing strategy in detail and provide metrics, if possible:
- Pivoted to online sales rather than relying on foot traffic and storefront business during COVID-19, increasing e-commerce revenue by 15%
- Transitioned to 100% digital record-keeping, reducing paper supply costs by 50% within the first year
Technical Tools
Zoom. Google Meet. Slack. These technical tools have been helping us get through these tough times. But how can you highlight pandemic work achievements using or implementing these tools as accomplishment-based bullet points on your resume?
Start by determining if you introduced any of these tools to your team or if you rolled out any new initiatives that necessitated new technology. If this describes you, then you can list your accomplishment like this:
- Initiated a daily check-in system for 45 employees via Slack to celebrate accomplishments, address questions, and build a positive, remote company culture
If you were more of a participant trying to keep your cat off your keyboard, then you can list your virtual work experience like this:
- Collaborated with colleagues via daily, online meetings, delivering a successful customer-facing project, even during the 2020 transition to remote work
Human Resources
Human Resources professionals faced many challenges during the pandemic, yet still found ways to keep employees connected safely. Photo by Good Faces on Unsplash
Human resources drives interviewing, hiring, onboarding, offboarding and all other people management activities. The pandemic posed a new hurdle for our fearless HR departments — the people they usually manage were now isolated, stressed out, and on the other side of a computer screen.
But, HR found a way to reach them. Many companies provided support services to their employees and pivoted to virtual interviews and training sessions to maintain social distancing. In some cases, HR professionals also had the difficult task of shuffling departments, reassigning duties, and unfortunately, eliminating positions to protect the bottom line.
By taking on these tough tasks, you helped your company weather the storm. Your pandemic work achievements can be stated like this:
- Supported 100+ employees through common COVID-19 challenges, including developing flexible scheduling and providing mental health resources
- Restructured the onboarding program for new employees, preparing them for a virtual environment and helping them feel connected to the company’s cloud-based culture
Administrative
The administrative team is the backbone of any enterprise. During COVID-19, your expertise in inventory management, communication, and problem-solving were more important than ever.
Here’s a sample of a few crucial responsibilities you may have performed:
- Managed, ordered, and distributed PPE supplies to 200+ hospital employees on a daily basis
- Handled customer communication regarding late shipments and supply chain issues due to the effects of COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic provided a crash course in crisis management for everyone from senior leadership to support staff, and your work achievements deserve to be celebrated and documented on your resume.
Are you ready to apply the lessons-learned from 2020 to the next step in your career? Check out our resume writing packages to see how our professional writers can help.
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