Maintaining company culture during such times is quite daunting. We miss out on those small, human moments that bring us closer together; having a quick chat over a coffee, sharing lunch or working side by side on an important issue. Not to mention in-person meetings. Even with video call, it can be difficult to keep everyone focused “in the room.”
However, thanks to some terrific tools and everyone’s collective efforts, we’ve managed to keep our spirits up and get our work done. Microsoft Teams has proved invaluable in overcoming some of the challenges by providing a simple and easy to use tool to collaborate together, in a secure manner. Our employees know when their peers are available to talk or busy on another call, or even in “do not disturb” mode while working at some task that requires their full concentration. Even some of the usual office banter has moved to our online platforms showing how quickly we are willing to adapt in challenging times.
It is very encouraging to see how well the team has responded to the required changes and our experience so far has shown that with the right set of tools and willpower, it is possible to keep the team engaged and in high spirits even when operating remotely and away from the office.
Keeping a Finger on the Pulse
A key barometer for any organisation is knowing, on a regular basis, how happy their employees are. Apart from the typical communication channels, we make use of an employee pulse survey tool called TinyPulse to send out anonymous survey questions every fortnight to gather invaluable feedback from our employees. This provides us with crucial insights to be able to improve their working experience. Questions vary from “What did you like best at your previous employment that you’d like to see implemented here?” to topical ones such as “On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate your ‘Working From Home’ (WFH) experience so far?” The most crucial question, one we repeat every 12 weeks, is “How happy are you at work?”
We trend and analyse the responses accordingly before sharing the feedback with the organisation during our monthly company update meeting.
Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle
We all know that if we want to live a healthy and happy lifestyle, regular exercise and a healthy diet go hand in hand. With this in mind, in February 2020 our members were invited to participate in a healthy living session organised at our offices. Marika Micallef, an expert in the field, came in to talk to us about healthy eating – this was followed by a 20-minute exercise session. This session provided us with some handy tricks and important information on how to adopt a healthier lifestyle into our own daily routines.
Raising a glass to us
Now that we’re working remotely, we’ve decided to even take our social activities online. Internal invitations have gone out for our first virtual chill-out session where we plan to clock off a bit earlier than usual and share anecdotes whilst sipping a refreshing drink from the comfort of our own homes.
We’re looking forward to this and to raising a glass to us! In the meantime stay safe and keep positive!