5 Ways To Conduct Professional Activities In This Remote Culture

In a survey done by Owl Labs (2020), it was found that people have been meeting by video calls 50% more since the COVID-19 pandemic began. 70% of full-time employees are working from home and about 92% expect post-pandemic work to be at least 3 days from home per week. Also worth noting, 81% believe that their employer will continue to push the telecommuting setup even after the pandemic. Fifty-nine percent of the respondents also mentioned they prefer working for an employer that supports and offers remote work over those that do not. With these facts and figures, it is undeniable that the Coronavirus is making this work-from-home setup the new normal of working.

As such, human resource departments have geared their assistance and support to the workforce remotely. Through online workshops and events, they continuously play their role. The job of HR is not an easy one. It involves multiple processes of employing, training, compensating, developing policies and most importantly, developing strategies to motivate, inspire and recognize employee efforts. All these are visible strategies to retain every single productive employee. This list will provide you 5 ideas you can incorporate into your next Zoom meeting:

1. Online training

The conference room has been quiet for a long time since seminars, orientations and meetings also made the big switch and are done online. With this new way of delivery, it is a great opportunity to produce even more training online. On top of your usual best practices, trends and customer service improvement webinars, you can also make room for language or art classes. Find a trainer or a teacher who can share his or her expertise with these topics. With a few classes of not more than one hour each, your employees can improve their verbal communication skills, problem-solving skills, memory function and creative thinking. Language and art classes are fun to attend and promote language and cultural diversity in your company. Both are also known to reduce feelings of stress so all the more that either must be done.

2. The raid wheel

Prepare an online roulette with the following choices: neighborhood, house, room, bag, wallet or bathroom. These things are the most common contents of raid vlogs found on YouTube. Once all your colleagues are in the same virtual meeting, spin the roulette for each of them then they need to share, show and explain whatever is asked by the roulette. This is a fun, easy and interactive way to get everyone interested and involved. It is also a great way to break the ice and invite laughter.

3. Recognition night

This is a great way to encourage positive feedback and recognition towards your employees. Arrange a Zoom meeting and require everyone to dress up as they would on gala night. You can also ask them to prepare, for themselves, some steak and wine as this is a formal virtual event. Make a program that includes various forms of entertainment, dinner and wine hour and the recognition of all employees individually. In these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic, being recognized for the work that you do gives someone more than a hug’s warmth. Make unique awards and prepare virtual badges for each one. Instead of giving them individual prizes, you can send out something you can buy in bulk and give them as both a reward and a party favor like a bottle of champagne. Events like this foster employee appreciation and therefore can invite more productivity on their part. When your employees are well appreciated, the more motivated they can also be.

4. Check-ins

To exercise positive speech and empathy, you can do check-ins. This is a great avenue to check how employees feel at the time of their work. They may share a funny story, something they realized, a mistake they recently made, a new way to do something, a new recipe discovery or a new series on Netflix they cannot keep their eyes off of. The goal of check-ins is to establish an open discourse where employees can share and be heard. Having this platform can make you resurface your employees’ true personalities and be more honest. Especially during this quarantine season when cabin fever and depression are rampant, it pays to find another set of ears that actually listens.

5. Revisit your perks and do an online raffle

In the middle of your webinar or webcast, give your employees a little fun by making a raffle. Most employees love participating in a raffle and trying their luck. For this, make a roulette that has all their names and simply take it for a spin. Tell them that you are doing this to foster positivity and motivation. Prize ideas could include a 1-month subscription to Netflix or Disney+, online access to the online fitness training program, gas money or grocery money. All these need to be expensive. Before you start with any of these, ensure that you do a needs assessment to know what exactly your employees need. Tap and ask them about how they feel and know how they cope with it. You also do not want to come up with an activity that only you would be happy participating in. Coming up with activities like this keeps the camaraderie, and spirit of human connection and makes your employees alive and engaged despite not being within the same office building.