Staying Social whilst Socially Distancing

Covid-19 has completely transformed the way in which people are working, socializing and interacting. Many are struggling to adapt to new conditions, which seem to change like the weather, whilst others have unfortunately lost their jobs. 

The restrictions have caused stress and anxiety within the community, increasing the notion of mental health issues. While many can hide it well, isolation and loneliness can be a severe and crippling issue.  Thus, it is important that as an employer and a friend you do the most to ensure the safety and mental health of all your employees whilst working remotely. 

Not only this, making your team feel cared for can be an important tool to the success of your overall business due to the fact that happy employees are productive employees. Having a team who are comfortable in a remote work environment will pay dividends for your productivity.  

How Microsoft Teams can help your team stay close whilst being apart 

Having open and honest communication channels can help with this within your organisation. Using a mixture of email, call and programs like Microsoft Teams can ensure you are communicating well with your staff during the tough time. 

Whilst using programs like Teams, you can create multiple Teams or channels to ensure your staff are communicating with others. File sharing and collaboration becomes the new water cooler chats that we are all used to in the office environment. Being able to promote video calls and meetings to check up on everyone is also integral to making everyone feel included and friendly. Many remote teams find that checking in and conversing with one another for a minute or two at the beginning of a call can keep the energy up. Some even schedule virtual social events to help take the place of traditional office gatherings. 

Finally, empowering your employees to chat socially outside of work is just as important to their comfort in a remote environment. Not being able to catch up about the weekend, have lunch or ask for favours, the office chat can be lost whilst working from home.  Utilising Teams and the Teams phone app employees can separate their work and social lives being able to communicate with their colleagues in an informal way. Even creating social events for your staff along the lines of trivia nights or after work drinks can be a major morale booster during a time of sadness. 

The remote environment may not work for everyone but it is up to you to empower your staff and create a safe and sustainable working from home environment. Opening communication up to different platforms and attempting to break down barriers can mean the difference between your staff being productive or not.