COVID-19 and the lockdowns we’ve all lived through have certainly had a multitude of different impacts for businesses and those working within those businesses, remote working being just one of them. With many of our clients working remotely as we’ve been doing we thought we’d share some of our experiences of keeping team morale up whilst working from home. We hope you find it useful and if you have any top tips on what’s helped you and your team through this do, please, share them with us.
- Staying connected. Whilst working remotely we’ve really come to recognise just how important it is to stay connected and ensure that our management team remain in regular contact with our wider team. This really isn’t about checking up on anybody but all about ensuring that our team knows we’re still there for them and here to listen to any issues they might be experiencing or new ideas they’ve had. Staying connected has absolutely ensured not only our team coordination but also our team management.We’d also add that we’ve found actually seeing each other rather than ‘just’ emailing or ‘phoning has been hugely important too. We’ve made it a priority to see each other and schedule in Zoom calls as our main way of communicating and staying in touch. We check in regularly with each other too to ensure that this personal interaction is appropriate, welcomed and helps fend off feelings of loneliness and/or isolation which has been reported as affecting many remote workers.
- Recognition is key. When someone notices and appreciates your hard work it’s a great boost for morale. When we all work together this can more easily be done on the spot. However, we’ve seen for ourselves that recognition whilst working remotely has a huge, positive impact. Yes, we’ve had to be more conscious in thinking about it and finding innovative ways to let the person/people involved know that we’ve spotted something they’re doing and we think it’s great, but it is possible! We’re working hard to make sure that we never miss an opportunity to recognise a good job done and to celebrate everyone’s successes.
- Take a break. We’ve all done it. We’ve sat down at our desk/laptop at 9am and suddenly its 3pm and we’ve not had a drink, lunch or even nipped to the loo for the past six hours! It’s not healthy, it’s not good for you we’ve really tried to encourage our team to take regular breaks away from their screens and their workload. It’s a fact that when we’re all well rested and recharged after a break productivity and motivation increase so let’s make sure we do it!
- Making sure it’s not ‘all work and no play’! As this image shows, we make sure that it really isn’t all about the work. Yes, work’s important, of course, but – and especially during these times – so is having a bit of fun! When we put together and circulated this photo around our team it made us all giggle, chat with each other and communicate in a much more informal and light hearted way. Relieving the stress and/or just doing something different for a moment or two really does help, we’ve found.
How have you stayed connected with your team during remote working? What’s worked for you? Will you continue remote working after COVID-19/this latest lockdown in some way, shape or form? We’d love to hear your comments and thoughts so do, please, drop us a line and let us know your thoughts.