The importance of distant socialising during a time of social distancing
Even for employees who work from home regularly, working from home for extended periods can take some time to get used to. For many of us, it has not only meant making physical adjustments, such as setting up a designated working area at home, but also mental adjustments, including forming new routines, making sure we take breaks throughout the day and learning how and when to switch off for the day.
Distant socialising
While many countries are using different measures to ensure that people adhere to social distancing to reduce the spread of COVID-19, being that humans are inherently social creatures, maintaining a sense of social connection is imperative to our overall wellbeing.
In our blog post, How your colleagues contribute to your happiness at work, we discuss the importance of work relationships and how our colleagues affect our health and productivity. Therefore, during this time of uncertainty and social distancing, it’s important that we participate in various forms of distant socialising.
In addition to daily and weekly online team meetings, some other examples of distant socialising could be organising mid-afternoon or morning coffee breaks with colleagues online, Friday after-work drinks online, and team activities such as quizzes or other games online. What’s most important is that colleagues connect with each other regularly.
“Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success,” Paul J. Meyer.
Creating a positive cycle
A great example of a company maintaining strong communication lines, connection and spirit amongst its employees is German bicycle company, Derby Cycle.
In Germany, if there is a shortage of work due to a crisis like we are seeing with the current coronavirus, companies can reduce employee hours and the state provides money to support employees. This system is known as “short-time work” and it helps companies avoid unfortunate layoffs.
Right now, the majority of Derby Cycle employees are working under “short-time work” conditions. During this time, the company is using the communication tool inside their Benify employee portal as their primary communication device to create and send important updates to employees via push notification, e-mail and in-portal messages.
Additionally, Derby Cycle has also taken the initiative to set up a new “encourage each other” page. Through this page, Derby Cycle employees can share photos with each other showing their work-from-home set up as well as send each other encouraging and motivating messages.
Derby Cycle’s initiative exemplifies Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs theory, which states that among our needs as humans is the need to belong (i.e. friendships, relationships and family) and the need for esteem (i.e. feelings of confidence in oneself and respect from others).
In times of uncertainty, it’s important that we stay connected to each other, encourage and motivate one another and share positive news using all technology and communication channels available to us.
For tips on how to maintain unity and productivity with a remote workforce, don’t miss our blog post, Top five tips for communicating with employees working from home.
This article is provided by Benify.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Benify
Benify offers the market's leading global benefits and total reward platform.
