To say that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge is, at this point, maybe underselling the situation a little bit.
Practically overnight, just about every business and industry you can think of changed dramatically – and all these months later, people are starting to come to terms with the fact that these adjustments may be more permanent than we’d first thought. Even though many states have begun to lift their lock-down orders, a lot of organizations are still keeping their workforce remote – which is an issue as far as communication, collaboration and larger productivity levels are concerned.
While the technology to “bring employees together” is already readily available in the form of cloud-based tools and similar platforms, what organizational leaders need to do now more than ever is help teams stay together in personal and intimate ways, too. Even though we literally couldn’t be more disconnected right now, we need to be proactive about bringing employees together during the Coronavirus pandemic. Below are a few key ways to help get you started.
Embrace Those Informal Experiences
In normal times, a big part of someone’s experience working in an office involves those fun little moments of informality that take place around a busy workday. You begin to cherish those quick experiences of talking about that big sport’s game in the break room with a colleague, or discussing that stunning episode of your favorite TV show that aired last night.
Obviously, this was one of the first things to go away as COVID-19 began to shut everything down – but it certainly doesn’t have to stay that way. Think about how you can use Zoom, Skype and other tools to take these experiences onto the Internet – creating an environment where they can have those informal interactions that they’ve been missing. You could host a weekly trivia night or happy hour, or you could just make a Zoom room available for anyone who wants to use it to discuss things that aren’t related to work. It’s a great way to help people stay connected in a social way, despite the great physical distance between them.
Staying Connected Means Staying in Communication
Organizational leadership has always depended on transparency to survive – and that has perhaps never been more true than it is right now.
Even though a lot of us are settling into this “new normal,” things are still changing very rapidly. Schools are opening, then they’re closed again. Businesses can open at 50% capacity, then no more than 10 people are allowed in the building at one time. One minute everything is fine in your building, the next you’ve been alerted to a sudden COVID-19 positive.
Even though you probably had open lines of communication between yourself and your employees before, you REALLY need them during this time. Not only will it show people that you’re still actively monitoring the situation and putting their best interests at heart all these months later, but it will also go a very long way towards strengthening their own commitment to your business, too. This type of connection is very much a two-way street – the more of an effort you make to remain committed to your employees, the more of an effort they’ll make so that the same is true to you, too.
By now, it’s beyond clear that COVID-19 and the issues it has brought with it are here to stay for at least a little while longer. But with the right approach to keeping your workforce connected, that doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing. As is true with most things in business, we’ll have to allow modern technology to act as our guide through these challenging times to help make sure we come out all the better on the other side because of it.
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