Camaraderie is our secret weapon

Julian Lute, strategic advisor at Great Place to Work recently said; “Camaraderie is like a secret weapon. When employees experience the nexus of great work, a powerful mission, and shared values, productivity soars”, yet with over half of all workers currently doing so from home, how can we as employers empower and drive a sense of company culture throughout the business remotely?

From September to December of last year, “positive atmosphere” was found to be the most-used phrase by employees to describe what made their company a great place to work. Yet whilst perks, such as flexible hours and birthday-holidays, may have bolstered employee productivity through the early months of the pandemic and working from home, how will we maintain that critical sense of camaraderie and positive culture - in the face of longterm remote and asynchronous working?

Without informal office interactions, we are left being more intentional in our communication and collaboration. As employers we therefore need to find ways to utilise our communications technology more effectively to try and cultivate that ‘camaraderie’ remotely.

Build social participation by adding virtual events, encourage more active participation in online meetings with structured engagement. By keeping enthusiasm high, employees will be more open to absorb the company-culture and more positive about their growth prospects whilst working from home.

An example of collaboration technology being used to facilitate the growth of internal relationships is being trialled by Orange Business Services, who are letting their staff use the corporate collaboration tools for social contact, not just business. We have other clients who insist on virtual whiteboard platforms at every meeeting, allowing employees to brainstorm, collaborate on and organise their ideas physically as well as mentally.

Finding the right collaboration technologies can make you feel that you are almost back working next to your colleagues again, even though you are not in the same office.

At Interaction.Works we are constantly looking for new digital tools and workspace designs that blend the digital and physical and help managers foster bonds with and between employees. Long term digital productivity will require new thinking about supportive digital spaces within which teams can share challenges, ask for help with work and fall back on camaraderie to relieve personal stress. It may appear an uphill battle, but if we don't start we run the risk of slowly losing our most powerful secret weapon.