Workplace engagement is an evergreen issue that’s always being fine-tuned — exponentially so in a climate that’s shifted teams to remote work. Beyond accounting for employee well-being, leaders must maintain clear communication and keep colleagues dialed in, all while maintaining a semblance of normalcy.
“Our team is constantly thinking of new ideas every day,” said Allison Wilbur, director of customer success at LiquidPlanner, whose work-from-home initiatives have included virtual activities like, “Whose desk is it anyway?” Meanwhile, brand protection platform BrandVerity has installed similarly engaging programming with “Guess Who?” employee quizzes.
For Pivotal Commware, leveraging tools like Confluence and Jira has helped keep a collaborative environment, according to Vice President of Engineering Alex Katko.
“The biggest challenge has been maintaining effective collaboration by virtual means that before occurred via hallway conversation and working side-by-side at a lab bench,” said Katko.
And at Hiya, offering monthly snack budgets and accommodating equipment requests have been critical for team engagement during this stretch.
“We’ve offered them tools to succeed in their home workplace while keeping safe,” said HR Manager Anna Ruh.
Themed happy hours, virtual games and other activities help create chemistry at project management tool LiquidPlanner, notes Wilbur. Beyond outside-the-box thinking, though, it’s the simple gestures that can’t be discounted: “Never underestimate the power of a quick phone call or virtual coffee to check-in and say ‘hi,’” she said.
What is the most impactful change you've made to your team's workflow since switching to remote working?
Themed virtual happy hours on Fridays have been a great way to celebrate the week. Also, holding a recurring all-hands weekly stand-up keeps each other updated on our progress. Additionally, playing virtual games such as “Whose desk is it anyway?,” where we post pictures of coworkers’ home desk set-ups and try to guess whose desk it is.
We’ve shared stories of “quaran-tivities” — home and family activities we’ve been participating in during quarantine — as well as pictures of the office dogs we usually get to see every day. Our team is constantly thinking of new ideas every day. All of these different virtual engagements have helped us stay connected and aligned through this period of time.
What tools are you using to maintain engagement and productivity while your team is remote?
One of our core values is to be disciplined in action. We have fully embraced this value during a time where we all can’t be in the office together. Now, more than ever, communicating and sharing progress is extremely important. Fortunately, we have an awesome project management tool that enables us to accelerate productivity, and that’s LiquidPlanner. It is one of the core tools we use that keeps our business running. We use our own application to track project work, which enables us to quickly and effectively share updates. During a time of remote work, increased visibility into what is being worked on and seeing the progress being made is absolutely critical.
Never underestimate the power of a quick phone call or virtual coffee.”
What support are you providing to your team to ensure they have everything they need to be happy, healthy and productive?
Right now, we are really embodying and putting our company values to the test. Values are particularly important during a time of uncertainty, as they can help align the team and remind you who you are and why you are here. Another one of our values is “service first,” which is not only important in supporting our customers, but also in supporting each other.
With today’s uncertainty, it’s important to take care of yourself and your loved ones. Eat healthy, exercise daily and talk to friends, family and co-workers. We are encouraging team members to take care of themselves and to stay connected with our leadership team and each other.
Also, never underestimate the power of a quick phone call or virtual coffee to check-in and say “hi.” By embracing our fundamental beliefs and caring for each other during a time like this, we can support each other through anything that comes our way.
According to Katko, the telecom developer has equipped its team with the tools and equipment needed for distributed work that’s still collaborative.
“Since we moved to most people working remotely, communication has been crucial for making sure everyone feels connected and part of a team,” he said.
What is the most impactful change you've made to your team's workflow since switching to remote working?
Because Pivotal makes telecommunication systems, we are well-positioned to promote working remotely. Nonetheless, a small number of people continue to work onsite. The biggest challenge has been maintaining effective collaboration by virtual means that before occurred via hallway conversation and working side-by-side at a lab bench. The usual video and telecommunication tools allow us to be responsive to one another and easily pull in others as a discussion evolves.
What tools are you using to maintain engagement and productivity while your team is remote?
We use a wide set of collaboration tools — including SharePoint, Confluence and Jira — to keep our teams working together. Virtual whiteboard software makes a big difference in allowing impromptu hallway design sessions to continue. Moreover, we are actively looking to hire a number of positions, and the same software is key for effectively interviewing people remotely. Maintaining the ability to sketch and collaborate during back-and-forth technical discussion has enabled us to interview quality candidates while allowing them to stay home and safe.
We use a wide set of collaboration tools to keep our teams working together.”
What support are you providing to your team to ensure they have everything they need to be happy, healthy and productive?
Even prior to the stay-at-home order, Pivotal ensured that all staff could work remotely. We provided workstations, headsets and anything to help people feel comfortable with their home setup. Some of our remote workers, who had never worked with more than just laptops, were delighted to have docking stations and additional monitors.
Since we moved to most people working remotely, communication has been crucial for making sure everyone feels connected and part of a team. Remote support is something for which we all strive to provide, for both work and emotional reasons. Much of our staff has taken the initiative to organize informal happy hours and game sessions to keep our culture intact.
From coffee chats to “Family Feud”-themed happy hours, spam call prevention platform Hiya has tried to keep the energy up as employees adapt to working from home.
“It’s key to create an atmosphere of ownership, fun, and hard work despite being distributed,” said Ruh.
What is the most impactful change you've made to your team's workflow since switching to remote working?
We work hard to maintain our strong work ethic and environment. It is key to create an atmosphere of ownership, fun and hard work despite being distributed. We are encouraging our people managers to hold tea time or coffee chats — and not talk about work — with their teams. We also are keeping our weekly happy hours. We’ve done themes like murder mystery, “Family Feud” and '80s trivia. We’ve had different employees host our activities so that we can be inclusive.
What tools are you using to maintain engagement and productivity while your team is remote?
Employees look forward to happy hours each week. Our “Family Feud” game show used PowerPoint to include music, a “boo” sound and a “clap” sound for correct answers. It certainly kept employees engaged.
It is key to create an atmosphere of ownership, fun and hard work despite being distributed.”
What support are you providing to your team to ensure they have everything they need to be happy, healthy and productive?
During this pandemic, our employees’ safety is our first priority. We’ve offered them tools to succeed in their home workplace while keeping them safe. We want to make sure they can be successful in the long-term. Employees are encouraged to reach out with equipment or supplies needs. We’ve even given our employees a monthly budget for snacks at home. There is something special about being in the office — like company-provided drinks and snacks — which many employees miss.
Gathering employee feedback has informed the approach that brand protection platform BrandVerity has applied to remote work.
“After reviewing the results of a recent engagement survey, it was clear employees missed being able to chat and see their co-workers,” said Office Manager Ryan Lim. The solution? “Snack and Skype” sessions and other fun activities.
What is the most impactful change you've made to your team's workflow since switching to remote working?
To help ensure overall well-being for all employees, departments have been intentional with more frequent team check-ins via video conferencing. These check-ins offer a consistent way to ensure people are engaged and feel like they have the support they need.
Our leadership team is meeting more frequently than before to make sure we are quickly able to address the needs and concerns of our team. Our CEO has also started sending a weekly company update email to inform everyone on actions the leadership team has taken with regards to COVID-19, as well as to synthesize industry trends.
Check-ins offer a consistent way to ensure people are engaged.”
What tools are you using to maintain engagement and productivity while your team is remote?
Prior to the pandemic, we were using Asana to manage projects; Lattice to survey and measure; Zoom for customer calls and demos; Google Hangouts for team and company meetings; and Slack, for messaging and updates. Since we have an office in London, we had already invested in finding ways to remotely collaborate and socialize. The main difference these days is that we are using our existing tools in new ways to creatively connect with our team and have some fun in the process.
What support are you providing to your team to ensure they have everything they need to be happy, healthy and productive?
After reviewing the results of a recent engagement survey, it was clear employees missed being able to chat and see their co-workers. We've put together several programs to keep people engaged with the team and each other.
Daily lunch chats serve as a regular open-hour for folks to video chat, catch up and have the small conversations that are hard to come by remotely. Weekly virtual happy hours are BYOB and usually involve some company-wide games like Jackbox Games or Codenames.
Weekly “Guess Who?” challenges are prompts sent to the company asking for baby photos, favorite recipes and other fun details from each employee. Responses are aggregated and released in a quiz where we try to match the response to the co-worker. Weekly “snack and Skypes” are hour-long casual meetups for our global offices: a volunteer hosts games, trivia or competitions for the group and fills in when the conversation lulls.
Also, we will be starting “BV Talks” soon, which are five-minute, employee-led presentations on any subject they are passionate about. Listeners learn about their co-workers and get to learn about new subjects each week.
