Nothing beats office banter and talking absolute rubbish for half of the day with your work pals, and that’s something most of us are missing right now.
So, what are some ways that businesses can ensure that office morale is kept up during this crisis? We spoke to five people that normally run or work in an office to see how they’re ensuring spirits are kept high during this crisis:
“HR professionals and business owners need to be as honest as possible with all members of staff during this lockdown. If things are going good business wise, then communicate this so that employees aren’t kept up at night wondering what the next day has in store for them. If it’s not so good, communicate this also just so that it doesn’t hit quite as hard as if they weren’t prepared.”
2. Scott Jones, Managing Director at Illustrate Digital
“Video calls – we are so lucky that most of us have the technology to do this so this is something that Illustrate love taking advantage of. Our 15-minute morning calls as a team are a great way to touch base and get us started. There isn’t an agenda as we mostly focus on random facts, banter and finding out what we got up to over the weekend, similar to as if we are first walking into the office on a Monday morning. Team lunches on a Friday are also great, and we even celebrated someone’s birthday with video conference antics and alcohol after work. An interesting party that’s for sure!”
3. Gemma Banks, HR Manager at Connect Assist
We also implemented ‘Fun Weeks’ so imagine a typical contact centre ‘Fun Day’ adapted for a remote working environment. So far, we’ve had quizzes on things like cocktails dingbats, guess the celebrity and matching pets to owners. We’ve had family Easter Egg competitions, dress up competitions, desktop bingo and our CEO’s take on ‘Where’s Wally’ starring his now famous feline Molly. We’ve had so many thanks from our employees during these weeks, and not just those who are participating. The visual aspect of employee’s seeing the effort their Leadership Team are going through to keep them going has been very well received.”
4. Nicola Lewis, Account Manager at Liberty Marketing
“We have a wellbeing group on our work chat system, where we can share ideas on things we can do during our lunches and after work. So far, a few members of Liberty have hosted a lunchtime pub-quiz and I even hosted a ‘guess the egg’ competition. Those that wanted to get involved were required to draw another member of the team on an egg, if we could get hold of an egg of course, and we all guessed who each drawing was of. It was great fun and provided plenty of giggles, which is definitely what we need right now!”
5. Alice Graves, Marketing Strategist at Happy Beds
“Using a team chat service is a good way to communicate to colleagues. We have two separate groups; one for work stuff but also a separate one where we can post things that are a little lighter hearted. The group includes funny pictures, inspirational quotes that crosses our path and just general chit chat. People can mute this if they want but it’s a good way to communicate with people you’re used to talking to all day, five days a week rather than only having email and phone.”
