Boosting productivity, improving efficiency… Many studies have shown that working from home can be beneficial to both employees and businesses. However, it can disrupt team cohesion, particularly among those used to meeting regularly, whether for work or for pleasure! Luckily, there are ways to help you maintain and even strengthen ties between your employees. Here are five top tips.
Arrange meetings by video link
Just because your team members work from home doesn’t mean they can’t see each other at all. To boost relations between your employees, organise video conferences, either to discuss ongoing projects, launch new ones, talk about any problems, or simply for colleagues to chat amongst themselves. By making sure you inject some spontaneity into these virtual meetings, you will quickly be able to reproduce a “traditional” working environment in which ties are formed and dialogue is prevalent.
Suggest a virtual after-work drink
Has you team met its targets or worked hard on a difficult project? If you were working face-to-face, you would probably have suggested celebrating after work on a Friday. You can still do that even when working from home! Organise a virtual after-work drink, via video link, for colleagues to have a drink or bite to eat and play games.
Further reading: Six tips for welcoming a new colleague remotely
Challenge your employees
Challenges can set the tempo and motivate your colleagues working from home. But they need to be shaken up a bit to help boost team cohesion. Split your teams into small groups and set them targets. These can be professional goals (number of cases handled, sales negotiated, etc.) or personal objectives (number of glasses of water, steps in a day, etc.). These little challenges will build solidarity amongst your employees and boost their efficiency!
Further reading: 8 tips for managing a telework or fully remote team
Set up your company’s own social media
Company-specific social media helps to build team cohesion by encouraging dialogue, whether on professional issues (a project, prospective customer, etc.) or informal affairs. It helps colleagues get to know each other better, understand the challenges they face, and stay in touch with each other more easily. This is especially important when you consider that nine out of every ten French people (*) think that a company is a place where you can make friends. So, whether you call it company social media or digital workplace, it is vital that you offer a “place” or meeting point designed to create and maintain ties.
Focus on co-creation by investing in the right tools
There are currently many solutions available for colleagues working from home to communicate with each other in writing, and work together to advance joint projects. Miro, Google Drive, Draft.io and Mural are all solutions for collaborating on documents, discussing specific issues, challenging each other on contributions to be made, etc. In other words, everything you need to encourage co-creation and boost team cohesion.
Further reading: Flex office and teleworking: what are the benefits for your company?
| Glowbl offers an innovative Digital Workplace solution, Glowbl Workplace. To find out more, please contact the Glowbl team. |
(*) According to an OpinionWay survey carried out for Editions Tissot, which questioned 1,005 employees from private and public companies.