With remote working being a key part of the new norm, making sure your teams are still happy and healthy is a top priority. Especially, now that seeing your team face to face is limited, even restricted. Working from home can often be lonely and isolating, coupled with social distancing, many may find their mental health being impacted. Here are some tips on how to promote the wellbeing of yourself and your team’s.
Communicate
With many organisations still working from home, it is still exceptionally important to make sure that regular communications are happening between all teams, making sure everyone feels connected. Having clear channels such as newsletters and FAQ’s can help prevent rumours and creates a sense of community with everyone celebrating individual and company successes. This is also a great way to help reduce anxiety by being transparent with your team.
Video Calls instead of Voice Calls
When face to face meetings are not possible, encouraging video calls over voice calls will benefit the wellbeing of your team. By using video calls when talking to your team, you can be more personable, keep your team engaged longer and socially connect better. It feels more natural to replicate an office chat through a video call, making it easier to understand how someone is doing.
Promote a good work-life balance
Keeping a healthy work-life balance can help your mental health. When working from home, it can sometimes be challenging to get away from work emails and calls, eating into home time by continuing to work can lead to lower productivity levels and burnout. Lead by example and your team will follow. Encourage your team to take regular breaks and time for lunch. For example, do not schedule meetings over lunch. Also, avoid picking up things over the weekend.
Be flexible
In the new world of working from home coupled with the unpredictability of the pandemic, your team may often find themselves with other priorities, from looking after children to caring for a sick relative. Being more flexible and realising not everyone’s working hours may be exactly the same, will greatly improve the motivation and dedication of your team.
Ask for feedback
Making sure your team feels like part of decision making is a great way of keeping them engaged, asking for feedback and suggestions can also help improve your team’s productivity and ways of working. This can also help alleviate staff anxiety in the knowledge that you take on their advice, comments and suggestions. Common methods of collecting this kind of information are surveys and forums.
Schedule weekly catchups
Having weekly virtual catch-ups can really help teams stay in touch socially, pinpointing a time during the week, preferably towards the end, where you can all come together and socialise, maybe even take part in a quiz or two. It’s a fantastic method of including your whole team and boosting moral, as well as celebrating the end of the week or team successes.