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For Remote Employees, The Best Christmas Gift Is Acknowledgment
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Holiday events build connections
Working from home has the potential to be very isolating. Holding virtual holiday events are a way to build connections with faraway colleagues.
A company holiday party acts as an acknowledgement of your membership in a community and recognition of your work. When the option for you to participate is missing, it can send a signal that you're not a full member or fully appreciated.
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Challenges remote workers face
Just being invited to the party is not enough. Many companies inadvertently make remote employees feel like second-class citizens. When organizing company events, they do not consider the logistical problems their remote employees face, such as plane tickets and hotel costs.
Some companies who do remember to host remote workers do not always include them properly. Videoconferencing means virtual employees can watch everyone having a good time, but they can't participate and will still feel excluded.
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Including remote workers takes creativity
In order to make a holiday event inclusive for everyone, companies can come up with ways to celebrate and have fun together.
- They could set a clear expectation that for the first half-hour, employees will talk about their greatest accomplishments from the year and what they want to bring into the new year.
- Turning on the camera could be made mandatory.
- Come prepared with conversation starters like, "What's your plan for the holiday?"
- An instant messaging platform like Slack can be used for people to discuss their interests outside work.
- Companies can give a budget to employees who live in the same location to throw their own local holiday party.
- Those who don't have other colleagues close can create their own party open to anyone working remotely. They can unite around the idea of remote work.
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Early times
Before the Industrial revolution, everyone worked out of their home and sold their goods from there. With the Industrial Revolution came the need for automation and factories, and employ...
From factories to cubicles to WiFi
Just after WW2, there was a rise in corporate headquarters and larger office spaces and cubicles. During this time, the 8-hour workday was established.
Then came the advancements in computers and technology that lead to remote workers of today. The internet and public WiFi allowed employees to do everything they would in their cubicle, but outside the office. They can also work all hours of the day.
Remote work is common
4.3 million people currently work from home in the United States at least half of the time, and this figure has grown by 150% in the last 13 years.
Remote workers tend to have higher engagement rates and higher productivity levels. Once they switch to remote work, they rarely want to become office bound again.
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Personal Connection
A sense of connection and belonging are sentiments that are helpful for building “affective trust” – a form of trust based on emotional bond and interpersonal relatedness.
It vari...
Statistics On Remote Workers
- Loneliness was reported as the biggest downside for 21% of remote employees, and one of the reasons that makes them more likely to quit.
- Most remote managers say they’d be more inclined to stay if they had more friends at work.
- Individuals who have 15 minutes to socialize with colleagues have a 20% increase in performance over their peers who don't.
- Positive social relationships are correlated with better life expectancy.
Dynamic Icebreakers
If your icebreaker questions are intriguing, cheeky, humorous – the answers you receive will be, too.
Many remote teams will kick off their weekly meeting with an icebreaker question or insert it during their morning stand-up meeting. Even more popular is asking a series of icebreaker questions during the onboarding process when hiring someone.
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The challenges of hybrid teams
Most companies embracing remote work also have dedicated headquarters. But remote-ish teams have even more communication and collaboration challenges than fully remote teams.
...Remote-friendly vs remote-first
The single biggest mistake companies can make is to opt to be remote-friendly instead of remote-first. Companies often accept the idea that remote is the future of work without creating an inclusive culture to ensure it works for everyone.
- Remote-friendly environment: Employees are allowed to work remotely, but work is not optimized for it. There is a disconnect between office and remote employees and team meetings exclusively occur in a co-located time zone. Water cooler chat is a space for key decisions and presence is correlated with meaningful work. Communication is synchronous-first. Managers must work in the office.
- Remote-first companies: Employees are empowered to adopt remote work. Real-time meetings are kept to a minimum and recorded. Decisions are made online and performance is measured by output, not by hours worked. Communication is asynchronous-first. Managers are encouraged to work from home.
Connecting a remote-ish team
Hybrid companies function best when the entire company is optimized for remote work. Successful hybrid teams set up processes to help their remote workers thrive alongside their office teammates.
Leadership must acknowledge the various challenges remote workers face and create solutions. Create a remote work policy that keeps remote workers and contractors from feeling like second class team members. Remote workers should feel fully connected and not missing a thing.