Working from home can bring on many new challenges for your team if this style is not something they're used to. It can become overwhelming for your team members to adjust to this new style, especially when the future may be uncertain for some. It is important to maintain the company culture while temporarily working from home. This will help to increase morale and maintain productivity. It will also help to bring some sense of normalcy to the new situation. Maintain company culture by keeping clear and open communication, motivating your team, and remembering your "why".
Maintaining Clear and Open Communication
It is very important to maintain clear and open communication while working from home. When everyone is not in the office, it is harder to keep everyone on the same page and "in the loop". Do this by holding meetings to inform the team of what's to come. When sending emails, make them clear and concise. Team members should be able to read them and digest the information quickly. (Bullets and lists are great for this!) Lastly, try to create an environment where team members can ask questions openly and honestly. This will help ease the mind of employees and foster a more collaborative work environment.
Act as a Motivator for Your Team
As the leader of your team, you play a huge role in setting the tone for your company. During this time, everyone will need a bit of motivation. Working from home can become boring and cause employees to feel drained if it is not their preferred working style. Motivate your coworkers by acknowledging their hard work and resilience during this time. After a week of hard work, celebrate employees with a virtual game night or party. Jeopardy works great on Zoom!
Remember Your "Why"
Simple, yet effective. Remind team members of your company's mission and goals. No matter the industry, your business has a purpose. Your "why" ultimately guides everything you do as a business. It guides how you interact with customers, how your company is positioned, and your company's culture. During this time, look to your "why" for that extra boost.
At Daybreak, we have taken on many initiatives to make sure we are maintaining our company’s culture while temporarily working from home. Here’s how we’re doing it.
Sharpening Our Skills
We have invested in recruiter training and we are devoting much of our time to it. This training is being facilitated by Robin Green and Sandler Training. We looked at this extra downtime as the perfect time to strengthen our skills, empower our team, and prepare us for the return to normalcy. We also are participating in role-playing. This includes talking through a variety of complex topics while coaching each other through these sessions. This time has also opened our eyes to the world of virtual and video interviewing methods. We are exploring these methods by having team members record themselves talk through various topics and presenting them to the team. As well as, having candidates interview through Zoom and using the interviews to evaluate best recruiting practices. Lastly, we have incorporated a book club. The first book we read was Meat Market: Inside the Smash-Mouth World of College Football Recruiting by Bruce Feldman. We compared the worlds of college football recruiting and IT recruiting. Currently, we are reading Wooden on Leadership: How to Create a Winning Organization by John Wooden. The team votes on which book to read.
Checking In
We are completing check-ins with all of our consultants via phone or email. Through these check-ins, we are addressing any concerns our consultants might have and also letting them know that they have our support while working from home. We recently sent care packages to all our of our team members and consultants. This package included a hand made face mask and a Daybreak reusable water bottle. We wanted to let our employees know we are thinking of them while sending them some new swag!
Keeping it Fun
We hold virtual meetings every day with our team members. Once a week, we bring a theme to these meetings such as movies or decades. Every Friday afternoon, we play a trivia game and team members bring a drink of their choice.