There’s no doubt that if your employees are happy, their productivity increases. When productivity increases, it impacts your bottom line. If your employees all come into the office, you’ll be able to interact and see firsthand how they’re doing so you can gauge their happiness scale. But how do you gauge the happiness scale for employees that are 100% remote or hybrid working? More likely hard to do, given the absence of impromptu meetings in the hallways, by the water cooler, or lunch breaks.
Of course, scheduled team meetings still exist to discuss projects, but the casual conversations that take place in the office hallway, through the cubicles or even at the lunch table are completely eliminated.
As a fully 100% remote company, here are some things that we do to ensure that our employees are happy
Schedule weekly team meetings where no one talks about business. Just random things. Our 100% remote company utilizes Friday mornings to do just that. Typically, we throw out a couple of random questions that will get our employees to share things they would not normally share with their colleagues outside of these Friday mornings. We’ve found out all sorts of things, including how one colleague is a big fan of a popular shoe brand that was wildly popular in the early 2000s and has just recently made a comeback. We find out about people having a bun in the oven! We find out about travel plans and even family dynamics. It’s a great way for any newbie to get to know colleagues on a different level than just work.
Celebrate life events Anytime an employee celebrates a birthday, we sing them Happy Birthday. Everyone gets to sing, no matter how good they are at singing. No one gets embarrassed since everyone is singing and we cancel each other out. Not only do we sing, but we showcase them and have a quick game of trivia to determine who knows that person best. Same with baby showers, but this time, it’s a surprise. Everyone’s zoom background is all baby theme and we put on a baby theme party that’s more than just baby trivia.
Offer opportunities to learn a new (non-work related) skill Some of our employees prior to joining uswere part of running clubs with their previous employer when they were working in office. They were able to meet other people from different parts of the company who may not have anything in common other than their love of running. Companies can still adopt a similar model for their remote employees, not necessarily for running, but for other interests. Minecraft anyone?
These are just some of the ideas that our team is doing to stay connected with each other. We’ve touched only a handful of ways and recognize that there is more. The bottom line is that it is important to have some fun times with colleagues so that work is not all about work. Your employees will thank you and you’ll see it in your bottom line as productivity increases.