It’s been over a year since our lives turned upside down. With the appearance of COVID-19 and its unknown effects on the population, it was imperative for businesses to act quick.
Acting quick meant moving everyday activities to online platforms via TEAMS, Slack and Discord, just to name a few. Working from home comes has its challenges: building company culture and integrating new employees. At least this was the case for Ufrost. How does one integrate new employees to make them feel welcomed if we can’t see them in person? More so, how does one keep employees motivated and happy? These were some of the many questions we had to figure out.
Despite hearing many companies laying off large percentages of their workforce, Ufrost decided to expand the team. We hired interns, grew the sales & marketing departments and even employed an organization consultant to help us keep on track while transitioning to an online office and on-boarding our new teammates. Chaymae Chraibi is our organization consultant and has brought so much value to the team!
At only 22 years old, Chaymae built her own association called PolySTAR at Polytechnique Montreal. She went from having 0 resources and 0 connections to building a solid Robotics team that grows and grows every year. At the same time, she plays an integral role in the functionality of our business. Seeing as she has a tremendous amount of experience leading large groups from founding PolyStar to joining Ufrost, she recognizes the importance of motivating employees through online learning. Here is some advice she shared with us on how to stay motivated during these hard times and how employers can help as well:
Staying motivated
- Call employees regularly throughout the week to see how they are doing.
- Take 5–10 minutes at the beginning of each meeting to allow coworkers to socialize.
- Give yourself breaks in between meetings. It is very easy to overbook yourself without realizing how drained you are until it’s too late. Allowing a 15 minute break in between meetings can really help you catch your breath and don’t forget your lunch break!
- Strengthen team relationships by organizing non-related work events. For example, play online board games together, organize a virtual 5à7, or randomly call a coworker to see how they are doing. These are all great examples to surpass the “just coworkers” feeling and strengthen team cohesion.
Building team culture while we work from home
Create opportunities for employees to work together and develop a sense of belonging. For example, organizing game night will give the opportunity for individuals from different departments to interact with each other.
Another important part is motivating employees to take part in these online activities. One of the challenges about working from home is creating the company culture that is more easily created in person. Bottom line is, you must create these opportunities and encourage employees to participate in the planned activities.
Improving team communication & productivity
People easily forget the importance of their work and how it affects their team. In person, if someone has a question they can directly go to their coworker and ask the question and it will be solved immediately. Whereas online, people may not see it as much of a pressing issue & response time may be longer which can block someone else’s work. This can then have a domino effect on project timelines. The manager’s role is to show the bigger picture to employees and remind them that their work is important and can affect others.
One last piece of advice from Ms.Chraibi is to designate time blocks for each team. During this time block, everyone is online and working on their tasks. This is beneficial because it serves as a time for individuals to help, support and motivate each other all while getting work done.
“ I work with a lot of groups whether it’s for Ufrost or PolySTAR and what I’ve noticed from the highest performing groups is that they designate a time block that they work together online”. — Chaymae Chraibi
The movement to working online has created a new way for businesses to function. What we have seen is that when employees are given the proper tools and have the proper guidance from the right leader, this creates a functional work process. Thus, making working from home all more pleasant.
What important lessons has your businesses learned throughout these most uncertain times?
