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The pandemic has brought to light The importance of social ties and more precisely of social connection at work.
Indeed, teleworking can be a major problem if it is poorly supervised and in particular isolating certain employees.
To remedy it, here are all our advice and best practices allowing to develop social ties while teleworking!
Our advice and best practices for maintaining social relationships at work
#1 Maintaining social ties through communication and digital technology
In teleworking, the new technologies are often the only way to keep in touch with colleagues. Indeed, to alleviate loneliness or to work in a team, digital tools make it possible to communicate at any time.
Thus, despite the distance, the role of HR and internal communication teams is to set up collaborative tools in order to remedy the loneliness of employees and maintain a sense of belonging to the company.
How to choose the ideal internal communication tool:
- Sonder all of your employees seem difficult, but it can be interesting to interview the managers of each department in order to understand their needs, expectations and understand the use they will make of them;
- Make sure the tool is compatible with all your existing tools, with IT teams;
- Choose a tool (all-in-one) that brings together all communication tools in a single application. This will facilitate use and encourage the support of your employees. Slack does it very well (77% of Fortune 100 companies use it);
- Finally, deploy the tool thanks to ambassadors, this will allow membership by as many employees as possible and more quickly.
Once the tool is chosen, all you have to do is create different “channels” in order to allow employees to work but also to have informal discussions.
However, be careful not to abuse communication tools too much because the respect for the right to disconnect of your employees is just as important.
Read also: The right to disconnect
#2 Maintain social ties by focusing on team cohesion
Team cohesion is something very important within a company. This allows each employee to be committed, motivated and thus productive.
At work or not, Sport is the number 1 social link. It can thus be an important driver of links at work.
An OpinionWay survey reveals that 80% of employees would be ready to practice physical activity if it were offered by the company.
To go further than creating a “soccer channel” on Slack, it is interesting to organize tournaments, challenges or sports challenges.
In fact, the benefits of group sport are well known: surpassing oneself, exchange, discovery of others and well-being among others.
Many tools are available on the internet and in particular United Heroes.
According to the latter, “sports practice breaks down social barriers and promotes inclusion.”
#3 Maintaining social ties through a sense of belonging
The social bond that unites employees is essential to the success of the company. Indeed, simple collaborator or manager, all have an essential role in the development of the company.
Without a connection or a sense of belonging, motivation decreases.
“You don't come to the office in the first place to work effectively or to have access to equipment, you come first and foremost to see your colleagues”, according to the 7th edition of the Paris Workplace barometer conducted by Ifop for the SFL. And “social life with colleagues” is thus the first reason to come to the office for 49% of employees.
Thus, the more a company succeeds in sharing its culture with its employees and thus creating a spirit of cooperation between its employees, the better off it will be.
To go further, here are two initiatives to maintain the link in a way that is still original and connected:
- Chez Gitlab, of virtual breaks are organized through integration doughnut, which allows two members to be brought together at random over a coffee break, a sports session or even lunch.
- Chez HelpScoot, of Troop Talks are organized, so 10 people are chosen at random to attend a videoconference around a particular theme. These could be cooking topics, your favorite applications, etc...
#4 Maintain social ties through welcoming offices
Offices can promote exchanges and sharing between employees.
Since the health crisis, employees have thus been waiting for open space offices, spaces to relax and promote informal exchanges.
Indeed, 70% of employees fear that their employer will not adapt their workplace, regulations or requirements to hybrid work, according to a study by Owl Labs, State of Hybrid Work 2022: France.
To promote exchanges between its employees, the Parisian company, Zenchef, has moved to the flex office and employees now have a large stone bar, a professional kitchen to organize events or receive customers or even collaborative and comfortable spaces.
The site now only accommodates 35 workstations while there are 60 employees, the office space has been divided by 3 and half of the remaining area is dedicated to living spaces.
So, offices offer real added value, for example, by offering collaborative spaces, open offices that promote communication between all teams or even allowing employees to meet, something that when working from home it is not possible to set up.
m-work and social ties
M-Work is a tool that makes the organization of work hybrid and the cohesion of employees simple for businesses.
Our solution allows you to develop social ties at work and promotes engagement of your employees in a hybrid world, between face-to-face and remote.
Are you interested in the subject? Learn more...
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