As we continue to work-from-home, companies and organisations are relying on conferencing platforms like Zoom to keep up communications and maintain day-to-day work and productivity.
They are also relying on Zoom to assist them in bringing culture and community to their employees working remotely. Companies with a strong culture have more engaged and enthusiastic employees. So, it is key during these uncertain times that we continue to keep morale and engagement high in the workplace.
We have brainstormed 5 ways you can successfully keep you culture alive over Zoom.
Regular Coffee Catch-ups
When we are working in the office we are constantly connecting with people throughout the day. Whether it’s going to the kitchen to make a coffee or heading out to the local coffee shop with a few colleagues. These little interactions help to lift our mood and refresh our mind.
Schedule a ‘coffee catch-up’ with your team or a group of people you’d usually grab your mid morning coffee with. This allows you to maintain relationships you have built and it is a reminder to take a break and make sure you are not working non-stop all day. Where possible, tell your employees to try move to a different room or maybe out to the garden (weather permitted) during the coffee catch-ups. It is healthy to leave your workspace to reset.
Organise a company wide breakfast morning
With everyone working from home it is harder for employees to keep in touch with those not in their team or department. Host a regular company wide breakfast event so employees can catch up with people they wouldn’t get to chat to on a day-to-day basis or meet new people in the company who they haven’t got around to chatting with yet. This breakfast event is a chance to connect employees to those in other offices, departments and floors.
Before you host your breakfast event, here are a few tips:
- Require everyone to have their camera on and advise them to use gallery view so they can see everyone on the screen.
- Email employees with a few topics for discussion so everyone can get fully involved and engaged from the get go. Topics could be weekend plans, last summer holiday or favourite hobbies.
- Use breakout rooms if the group is too big. This allows for employees to have more in depth conversations with each other.
Host social & games gatherings
Just because we can’t make it to after work social gatherings, doesn’t mean they have to stop. We are social beings so it is important to keep up these interactions. Many companies have after work drinks or events on Thursdays and Fridays and though it may be hard to replace the feeling of finishing a day’s work and grabbing an ice cold beer with your colleagues, try to create the next best thing! Consider hosting virtual after work drinks or a pub quiz. It’s the perfect way for employees to get to know each other’s interests.
Here at Jobbio, we have monthly ‘Beer & Pizza’ Thursdays’ but this week instead, we are kicking off the long weekend with a ‘Beer & Hat’ Zoom party.
Themed Zoom
Get your team together for a fun themed Zoom call. This could be incorporated into any of your social & games gatherings or maybe on the last Friday of every month? Your employees can use the gallery view setting and share with each other how they have fulfilled the theme. The perfect theme to start off with could be something like ‘pets’. Pets are the newest additions to the workplace – and many employers are embracing them. Ask your employees to bring their pets to Zoom and if they don’t have any, let them get creative – that’s what the virtual backgrounds are for!
Lunch and Learns
Lunch time can sometimes be the only time during the day employees get the chance to have a conversation. So it plays a huge part in building a community within your business or organisation. With employees now working remotely they may now be spending their lunch break eating alone. Set up lunch calls to allow employees to catch up and talk. This also gives employees the chance to give each other lunchtime meal inspiration.
Video conferencing platforms make it possible for companies to maintain a sense of culture and community during these times. As we don’t know how long we will be working from home, it’s so important that we continue to maintain the culture in our workplace that we worked so hard to build.
