Our recent webinar on reimagining connection for a thriving workplace was a superb insight into what’s happening across organisations.
We could have spent the entire day drawing wisdom from our fantastic panellists – Melissa Marsden, Tegan Davies and Kelly Parmenter – but what we managed to discover in 1 short hour was phenomenal.
If you didn’t see it, or want to re-watch, you can check out the recording HERE.
What you WONT be able to see from the recording was the immense insight we gained from the broader community in the session
What did we discover?
With the best of intentions, some of our initiatives missed the mark…
Hybrid farewells where some people come into the office and some are online. Energy and attendance was low and feedback from those leaving was poor.
Random coffee catch-ups. In the end, people felt it was too routine. Had a strong start, but then dropped off slowly.
Social catch up on a Monday lunch – everyone was too busy and so much less engagement than anticipated as a result.
Team lunch shout – people started grabbing what they’d ordered and went back to their desks to eat!
In person connection days. We didn’t check the external landscape and planned our first big event on a day that trains were striking. All three hosts were stuck on the network for 3 hours and most attendees turned around and went home.
Offering too much choice. We have a tight cohesive group in one site and our original remote work guidelines resulted in key members of that group just saying ‘right, I’m 100% remote’ when the intent is hybrid and the in person connection was so important with that site. So we had to say that the intent is that 100% remote was by exception, and the norm should be hybrid.
Morning virtual check in – bit like saying hello when you walk into the office. Was perceived by others as checking when you started or finished work. Definitely not the intent!
Designating a particular day for the team to be in the office – however, in reality, we now understand that each week is very different and requires different team members to be in the office on different days due to the responsibilities of their roles.
And we shared some things that ARE working well
Reskilling our people about what connection is and what does it looks like today. We shouldn’t assume everyone knows this stuff – coaching our people to really hone in on these, perhaps, new skills.
Putting emphasis on the fact that management acknowledges that when we are in the office, we might be less productive in terms of work output than when we are at home, but valuing having the human connection and relationship building between colleagues.
We are beginning to see more of our people actually blocking out their calendar for an hour or so for just ‘connecting with others’ when in the office. This is visible and known to their managers and it’s encouraged, so people don’t feel guilty and see it as part of their job!
Re-onboarding with the whole team to realign us all back to the business, our remote friendly ways of working and our values, mission and vision.
A booking system where you can see who else will be in the office – so you can deliberately go in to connect with people you need / want to connect with
Keeping things fresh and changing up the activities / ideas so we don’t get bored!
Understanding that each culture defines the symptoms of a good connection differently…..
Whilst we hope this discussion and some of the experiences shared above will help you on your journey to reconnection, this is not a closed book. Reimagining connection for a thriving workplace is exactly that – a journey – and one that will take a few more failures and trials to get to the destination!
Join us for more discussion about how to reimagine workplace for your organisation!
It’s the theme for the 2023 Thriving Workplace Event
Discover more about what we have in store and sign up below: