A world without COVID, a dream of everyone in this world. It is a dream where everything runs normally as in the past. People start traveling, going to restaurants, employees working in offices, and much more. As we snap out of this dream, we realize that the pandemic is still not over yet. Our world has become a nightmare where a deadly virus is spreading around the world.
This reality is affecting so many businesses. To keep their employees safe, many firms have switched to remote working. Some firms and organizations believe that it is going to affect the productivity and office culture of the workplaces. And yes, they are not wrong. It has affected both of these factors.
As seeing the effect of this pandemic, so many companies encouraged their employees to work remotely from home. According to A. Gartner, Inc. survey on March 17, 88% of organizations are now conducting business by allowing their employees to work from home. Organizations and firms need to show how leadership works and as a leader, how they are thinking about their employees.
Businesses know how important work culture is to keep their employees retained and productive. But, as remote working is implemented it is hard to keep things like they were in life before the pandemic. Employees are not in regular touch with each other, then how they are going to manage the culture and productivity of their employees.
Companies need to adopt this change as the work environment has shifted to remote working. Now virtual communication is the only way to reconnect your people. In this article, we will look at how one company can maintain the company culture while keeping their employees productive toward work.
Rise of Leaders:
It’s been said that whenever humans face a crisis, their leadership skills awaken. This is the skill that organizations need to find in their employees during this time. The current scenario we are living in is the best opportunity that will give birth to a leader in a firm or a team.
This is the time when your team will learn the skill set of a leader. They will make an understanding of how they can work with clarity, calm and optimistic views. Not only working along with these but also using them as a communication tool. A leader with these qualities today will take the team toward productivity and the company toward success.
Communication:
We all have been hearing this for a very long time, “Communication is the key for any relationship” and it is true. As a leader or manager, one needs to understand the value of being the voice of calm and reason. The team or firm depends on how one person is communicating with others. All this needs to be maintained in this pandemic when everyone is working from home.
While communicating, leaders need to share information about current work status and flow. They need to set the tone of work among their team members. This way they will be able to reinforce the feel of the office culture and this will motivate the team to achieve their objectives and goals on time. As the aftermath of this, the productivity of employees will be either same or rise in comparison to work from office culture.
Draw Clear Lines:
Creating clear policies are important when your employees are working in remote places. While organizations are in remote working mode, they need to draw new lines for their employees. As of now, employees are no longer in offices. This means one can not apply “One For All” kind of rule anymore. These rule, boundaries needs to be flexible and compatible with this new environment of work.
Debby Carreau, Entrepreneur, Author, and founder of Inspired HR said in an article, “Set “core business hours” when team members should all be available to collaborate, and outside that time block allow flexibility with start, finish and break times.”
The Water Cooler Effect:
We all have experienced this in our work life but some might not know about it well. Every office has several groups of employees that share or gossip about tv series or current events at the water cooler. When a topic has this intensity to bring all people together to share information, then we can say that the topic has a 'water cooler effect'.
This water cooler plays a vital role in keeping your employees connected. Just like a real water cooler effect, employees need to have this experience in their remote work environment too. To do that, a company can create a group in their text chat tool that is dedicated to all these kinds of topics.
Yes, the group must abide by some ground rules, like what kind of humor or language employees can use. These rules will help the firm to maintain the decorum of the office and avoid any offensive statements.
The Value:
There are so many articles about remote working on the internet where you will read that productivity level while remote working is higher than working in the office. Why is that so? One thing we can say is while working remotely employees feel flexible and relaxed. This feeling is hard to get in the office. Remote working not only makes employees more productive but also makes them less likely to quit.
“60% of remote workers said that they would leave their current job for a full-time remote position at the same pay rate. – PGI 2015 Global Telework Survey”
If we point out some main benefits of remote working, then that should be these:
- Growth in employee satisfaction
- Less unscheduled leaves
- Increase in productivity
- Reduced employee travel cost
- Less unnecessary meeting
- More collaborative environment
These benefits work for both organization and employee improvement. These are the values that remote working will add to the office culture. So, now you know, how remote working is an add-on to your work culture.
Mental Wellbeing:
Pandemic left all of it in social isolation. No one can go out like we used to do before. This disconnection from the outside world, friends, and family can give your employees depression and anxiety.
To deal with their mental health issues, a company needs to encourage its employees to be more socialize, virtually. To do that, a company can conduct some regular short meetings at the end of the day. If employees engage in such a way, it will create strong bonds between them. These bonds will help them fight depression and anxiety.
Implementation of emotional wellness culture in your company will help it in being in a healthier position than others. This is how you establish a culture of respect in your organization.
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