Remote Workplace Community
The past eight months have been a hard time for all of us. We’ve had to get used to a whole new way of life, which means a whole new way of working. When we transitioned to working remotely in the spring, many of us likely didn’t think it would last this long. During this pandemic, it’s more important than ever to keep a sense of community in the workplace.
Community and teamwork are important in the workplace because they help engagement and boosts levels of happiness. Studies have shown that people who are happier at work are creative and effective problem solvers, are committed to work and are willing to contribute more beyond their job descriptions.
But how do companies make people happy when they can’t even see each other? They need to create a sense of community virtually.
The good news is we have started by all getting a new look into each other’s lives outside the workplace. Kids have walked into zoom calls, pets are guests in business meetings and we’ve seen more of each other’s lives as whole.
According to The Atlantic, communities have a large impact on our happiness level. If a community is struggling, it has a negative effect on the people within it. Therefore, how our company is doing can impact us. But communities can also come together and rally against the common enemy, in this case the pandemic.
Part of being in a community is also being there for each other. The Center for Disease Control released a report that over 40% of respondents to a survey in June reported adverse mental health effects during the pandemic. Mental health is important in the workplace because it affects people’s ability to do physical jobs 20% of the time and reduces cognitive performance 35% of the time. Companies should be taking reports like this into consideration when thinking about their employees in the pandemic. We have all been struggling in our own ways, and the workplace community should help support each other.
Here are some tips for workplaces to help foster community virtually:
● Create events for employees to partake in and be creative with them!
● Check in with one another to see how everyone is doing.
● Be flexible, everyone has different ways of reacting to what is going on.
● Provide resources to those who need it.
● Create company care packages.
We have all struggled in our own ways the past several months. In order to help our companies and each other, we should continue to work towards building that sense of community.