With the health crisis keeping people apart, how do you make a group of remote workers feel like a team and keep morale high? At the onset of COVID-19, social distancing became an increasingly familiar concept. To reduce the spread of the virus, isolation was seen as a public duty. However, this caused depression to increase by 56% and anxiety to spike by 45% when compared to pre-pandemic levels.
The numbers beg the question – what if we’ve been wrong about social distancing this whole time? While physical distancing remains important, we need to encourage increased social interaction between individuals and teams. It could be as simple as having coffee with a colleague over video. Leaders can also step up by creating a schedule that allows employees to safely use the office and its resources, whether for individual work or small team meetings. As we continue to deal with the difficulties of this pandemic, encouraging responsible social togetherness remains vital to our team culture and engagement.
Cohesion, adaptability, and a willingness to stay open-minded are important traits that an organisation must embrace in order to thrive. Some companies are even shifting traditionally in-person activities like social engagements and recognition events – including awards ceremonies – to an online format. Even when it’s virtual, it’s important for employees to feel that their efforts are truly valued. And if they just need to relax, many online game service providers can organise virtual pub games to give teams an opportunity to interact and have fun. This openness to change further enables an overall resiliency within teams, and gives them a resolve to emerge stronger on the other side of this pandemic, together.
When a large insurance provider switched to remote working, they wanted to retain a level of familiarity that was easy to come by in an in-person setting. So, they made it a point for “Scheduled Spontaneity” to make its way onto employee calendars. This could take the form of having a 15-minute coffee break with someone, introducing themes like a costume day, or spotlighting on a rotating basis certain individuals and the spaces where they work. By building in time to get to know each other on a non-work level, employees felt closer than ever before.
During a time when employee connection and cultural engagement can prove very difficult to maintain, Kelly is helping organisations do just that. Keeping employees growing through upskilling or reskilling will help your workforce remain engaged and inspired. The expectations of your talent must be met, and Kelly can help coordinate a strategy for talent engagement to minimise turnover. However, if some furloughing or even layoffs must occur, we can help you keep those people connected through our Rapid Talent Pool Solution, so they can remain involved and ready once business returns.