Whilst many love the flexibility of a hybrid work environment, some are finding that they are missing out on building and deepening relationships with their colleagues.
There is no doubt that making small talk on a video call before you get into the meat of the meeting does not compare to having a chat over a cup of coffee with someone in the office. Building relationships is made even more challenging when people work asynchronously.
Employees lacking a connection will impact their satisfaction levels at work, as well as how confident they feel asking for help and collaborating with one another. In fact, research from Microsoft shows that cross-functional collaboration decreased by 25% during the pandemic.
Organisations need to intentionally create ways for employees to connect to one another. Here are some things they can do to help combat their employees feeling disconnected:
- Have socials (online and in-person) and organise an away day
- Allocating an hour a week to coffee and catch up meetings
- Encouraging employees to come in for team days in the office.
- Arrange a workshop, Lego Serious Play (LSP) is great tool to use when team building.
- Use shared online workspaces to collaborate
- Arrange meet ups for different departments to get to know each other
- Connect those in-person and those online with one another
- Have regular check-ins with staff
- New staff should onboard in person. This will make asking questions much easier and they will get to know others quicker.