Tips for Harboring Workplace Harmony in a Work-from-home Setting

The ongoing pandemic situation caused by COVID-19 has shut down the whole world unprecedently, affecting billions of people across the globe. The corporate world is no exception and had to adapt accordingly in a matter of a few days. Social distancing is the new norm across the world, so flocking to the office and its hustle and bustle is behind us, at least for the time being. Work-from-home (WFH) is no more privilege, but rather a necessity.

In a time like these, organizations across the world are facing a new form of managerial crisis whereby teams are more fragmented than ever before. But as someone has rightly said that “Necessity is the mother of all invention,” such conditions call for innovative ways to drive the teams towards their goals in a more systematic fashion. But how do we do that? Well, these three suggestions can be worth considering.

Align over Conference Calls

Having a call with a remote client or colleague is quite different from having the same with your immediate team. Both cases have a different mindset, in the former; one does it out of the will, whereas in the current situation it is the need of the hour. Managers should plan and articulate daily alignment calls in the morning, where everyone in the immediate team jumps on for a short briefing.

The call can be around 30 minutes or less, in case of a 10-20 member team. This small act of bringing everyone together, once a day, can have a positive impact on the members. When there’s no option of a personal meeting, such calls will make sure the human element in an organization is intact.

This is in line with studies that have demonstrated social interaction is essential for the psychological well-being and successfully delivering daily tasks.

Virtual Togetherness

Managers have a huge role to play in keeping the team together in these trying times. A good example is a multiplayer online game where team members collaborate to achieve a common goal. The most active player can either make or break a game for the entire team. To foster teamwork in a virtual workspace, managers need to deploy innovative ways to keep everyone focused on the task at hand.

Managers can use interactive project management and planning tools such as Trello to keep track of various developments in real-time coming from team members. Tools that help them assign tasks easily, monitor them and deliver without the fuss of sending constant messages or emails.

The next step in this direction can be creating fun chat rooms where everyone can speak their mind while they work, whenever necessary. One obvious problem is the lack of expressions in a chat room, use emojis — or better — use gifs. Have some fun with the team. Although the chat room must focus on the task at hand and only on messages meant for the entire team, it should keep the engagement intact throughout the day.

However, writing long messages and getting beeps every 10 minutes can break one’s concentration in such a case have a quick personal call.

Entertainment is Important

Let’s face it, WFH is fun. But as human beings, we are tuned to nurture in a social setting where we constantly interact with our colleagues and office buddies. We used to have tea/coffee together, eat lunches, and sometimes participate in sports or cultural activities. Self-isolation has taken its toll on such moments, and we once again need to innovate to make up for this gap. HR teams across businesses can organize online watch parties for their teams’ entertainment whenever the time comes. Netflix recently launched its watch party feature, and companies can embrace it or similar applications.

The topic needs to be carefully selected and can range from Ted talks to corporate documentaries or motivational movies. Apart from these, planning online conferences or workshops can also help many employees get used to the new way of working. These workshops can either be reskilling employees for a WFH setting or can also be anything of use for the team.

Many organizations are still mulling new ways to accommodate their teams, depending on their requirements. And, we are sure that this will give birth to agile and intuitive ways of getting things done, but until then we shall endure and get ahead of this situation with the best we have at the moment. Hustle from home, stay home and be safe. Cheers.

September 28, 2020