From Break Room To Living Room: Why Human Interactions Matter Now More Than Ever
The water cooler. The break room. The group walk around the corner for lunch. In whatever form it existed in your organization, the COVID-19 pandemic has closed off many of the formerly reliable ways in which employees organically connected with one another and with their company. Whether it was discussing running shoes with marathon-obsessed Katherine, sharing a Friday afternoon beer with John to celebrate the end of a difficult project, or watching Sanjay’s new dog prancing around his apartment, employees are now more than ever missing and craving these previously unsung forms of engagement, interaction and relationship building. They are feeling isolated, with the result being a diminished sense of belonging and a general feeling of disengagement from their organizations.
Many HR leaders have spent the past several months rightfully consumed with other matters, such as remote IT support, safety, travel and return to work protocols, productivity, and new talent acquisition strategies. It’s easy to overlook the value of interpersonal connections in the face of more immediate concerns. However, during uncertain times like these, keeping engagement high is more vital than ever, and our message to organizations that think they can either neglect the importance of the water cooler or table ways to adapt interpersonal connections to the COVID era is this: you need to rethink its importance.
It can be difficult to maintain or to replicate these once-spontaneous human interactions in our now-virtual world. In-person happy hours will always be more fun than their Zoom counterparts. But as days spent in home offices now stretch into months and potentially longer, it’s become increasingly apparent that employees need these now-missing aspects of their previous day-to-day experience. They are critical to maintaining and advancing the culture of an organization, and to helping employees feel more involved with their company despite not having walked through the doors in six plus months.
Replicating these interpersonal interactions in a virtual environment doesn’t require sweeping changes or formal pronouncements. Rather, just as the water cooler provided an informal but welcomed break from routine and a bridge to human connection, translating those moments into a virtual world should also feel similarly unconstrained and serendipitous.
Below are some of the ways top organizations are trying to bring back the elements of human connection lost during COVID-19.
Team Huddles: Samantha Owens Pyle, owner at Green Apple Strategy LLC in Tennessee, says scheduled virtual “water cooler chats” are opportunities for employees to share “personal highlights and celebrations.” Save talking shop for other venues.
Play a Game: Rich Pusateri, a marketing associate at Postal.io, says his team has a “Zoom water cooler” that everyone calls into on Friday’s at 4 p.m. By playing a Kahoot! trivia challenge at the end of the work week (perhaps while enjoying an adult beverage), employees start the weekend with a good feeling about their peers and their employer.
Have Lunch Together: For many of us, the lunch hour -- working from home or not -- is sacred. But consider from time-to-time enjoying lunch over a video chat. There’s no shortage of tech that helps keep virtual employees connected, and there’s even one, Donut, that introduces team members who don’t know each other. Have lunch with someone new!
Encourage some small talk before meetings: at the outset of a virtual meeting, it’s OK to spend the first few minutes on small talk, especially if it’s the first meeting following the weekend or the last one on a Friday. The best small talk topics include the weather, sports, family and hobbies and it’s best to avoid politics, religion and jokes anyone might find offensive. If you’re aware of any small talk-challenged employees, here’s a useful tip sheet.
Recreate morning coffee breaks - Catie Brand, VP of HR at career transformation company General Assembly, keeps a video chatroom link open so remote employees can “jump in” anytime the yearning for a human connection strikes. “You never know who’s going to be in there, but it mirrors what it’s like to get coffee in the kitchen at the office,” said a General Assembly employee.
What virtual water cooler strategies are you employing at your organization? We’d love to hear from you so we can share your ideas with our followers too. Drop us a line at abenson@bensonsearch.com.