How to Keep the Link with Your Employees in Teleworking?

In remote working, it is possible to maintain the link with your collaborators, even if the nature of these social interactions is likely to evolve. We give you some advice on how to keep the link between you and your employees, whatever the distance.

Teleworking is changing the way we think about everyday life. Indeed, this way of doing things offers new perspectives: reduced travel time, more flexibility, use of new tools, the advantages are numerous. However, teleworking can have certain negative aspects. Some people need a greater social connection and will find it difficult to deal with isolation, working alone, being in front of their computer. The social relationships that a group of colleagues may have within a company no longer really exist. As such, a question arises: how do you keep in touch with your colleagues, even when you are teleworking?

Coffee breaks and after-work breaks have suddenly become rather vague concepts. Everyday life is all about home and this completely new situation can be difficult to manage. This was one of the major issues related to lockdown. Indeed, many experts were questioned about the psychological impact of this period on professionals. An impact that is still being felt today. This is why we are going to study in this article, a few ideas and advice that will help maintain this relationship and this team bond that unites colleagues, even tens or even hundreds of kilometers away from each other.

Keeping in Touch with Its Employees

As we have just seen, teleworking leads to more flexible management. It is now possible to adjust one's schedule (starting earlier or later), to work from any location as long as there is access to the internet, etc. This new way of doing things opens up the field of possibilities. However, some deviations can be observed. In remote working, too much freedom can lead to a lack of productivity. Doing what you want, when you want, is not possible. This is where internal communication will play a big role.

Communicating effectively around the rules in place, projects and company life, helps to keep this link between the employee and the company. By defining certain processes, such as tools dedicated to real-time communication (messenger, email, telephone), all the teams in a company will be able to stay in permanent contact. Without imposing a guard, one must therefore trust one's collaborators, while supporting the fact that this new mode of operation does not give the right to act randomly, at the risk of causing delays in the management of one's projects but also of creating tensions within the team. It is difficult to acclimatize to a new environment and everyone must be able to rely on others to move in the right direction. By keeping and working on the professional link that unites the company and its employees, an entire team benefits from it.

Optimize your Relationships Thanks to the Tools at Your Disposal

Real-Time Communication, for Better Exchange

In order to facilitate this link, this contact between colleagues, a company can take advantage of the many digital tools at its disposal. These softwares or applications allow to better manage daily life and, above all, to keep this feeling of belonging to a team. With remote working, the demand is growing and the uses are constantly evolving. So why not take advantage of it? In order to keep in touch with colleagues, even when working from home, the use of instant messaging is interesting. In this way, discussions take place in real time.

Videoconferencing, for a Close Relationship

Similarly, videoconferencing is becoming more and more common among teleworking teams. Allowing all employees to discuss a few minutes or a few hours a day, via video, makes the day more pleasant and less stressful. Seeing yourself and talking face to face with the camera does not have the same flavor as a real-life exchange, but remains an excellent way to keep in touch with your colleagues and move forward on your issues, all while feeling as though you are surrounded by your colleagues.

Organize Team Buildings and Team Rituals

In teleworking, it is difficult to take full benefit from your colleagues. However, management can take the lead and federate its group at specially organized events. If the famous "after-work" events are likely to be banned for a while, it is possible to adapt and organize team buildings or meetings in a digital style.

Adapting Team Rituals to Teleworking

Let's take here the example of the famous "aperitif - skype", which in times of lockdown were very appreciated. In fact, with teleworking, thousands of people have decided to change their lives and are settled in rural areas, far from the cities, hundreds of kilometers from the office. Since remote working is the norm, meetings by videoconference can be organized once or twice a month.

These rituals allow us to discuss things other than work, to evoke current issues or the daily life of each person and how they feel about the new norms. These meetings, even if they are not worthy of real evenings with colleagues, make it possible to exchange and continue to have a link, even from afar. Management can also take advantage of these moments to organize online games, something that is becoming more and more popular. Cohesive or collaborative activities encourage exchange.

Similarly, why not opt for an online meeting, which allows all employees to discuss teleworking and how things could be improved? This allows teams to define the uses that everyone wants to implement. A good way for colleagues to discuss among themselves, to optimize their working time and to define the meetings or things to implement in order to improve the digital social life of the company.

Teleworking Pensions, the Right Solution?

Finally, there is a solution for companies with a larger budget: teleworking pensions. Indeed, in order to enable all the colleagues in a team to keep in touch, training courses are organized during which a house is rented in which a set of tools to promote teleworking is located. In this way, the teams meet up with colleagues, benefit from an optimized professional environment and a proximity that digital technology does not offer. A stimulating environment that reinforces team cohesion.

Do Not Hesitate to Take Advantage of Others in Real Time

In remote work, some colleagues may live hundreds of miles away or even more. Others, on the other hand, may be a few dozen or even fewer kilometers away. With the consent of management, a person can organize a meeting between colleagues as long as the health measures currently in place allow it. This is an interesting option to explore, which allows people to establish a bond with their colleagues during a real meeting, far from computer screens. Lighter subjects can thus be discussed and all colleagues can enjoy a bit of fun, far from the work-related worries.

How Can Jamespot be Useful in This Case?

The Jamespot solution has many features that allow its users to exchange and collaborate on a daily basis. Two features in particular are favored by professionals when it comes to communication: instant messaging and the Jitsi by Jamespot application. The first provides all employees with different communication channels to exchange with their peers on a one-to-one basis as well as on a team or department-wide basis. The second allows you to create a videoconferencing room in just a few clicks to exchange more visually with your colleagues.

In addition to these two functionalities, the Jamespot solution offers the possibility to deploy more than a hundred applications according to the business needs of its users. An entire category is dedicated to communication: something to diversify the way of exchanging with colleagues.

Besides the features and applications dedicated to communication, the Jamespot enterprise social network is based on a system of thematic groups. While some groups may be confidential and therefore hidden from view, others may include all employees, regardless of department: the publications of each other are thus visible to all, which has the effect of strengthening the sense of belonging of each employee and thus helps to fight against the feeling of isolation.

Finally, don't hesitate to create opportunities to bring your collaborators together. At Jamespot, we have developed the habit of joining us by videoconference at the beginning and end of each work day: it is an excellent way to start and end a day in a symbolic way while maintaining regular exchanges between all team members.

Seeing yourself and talking face to face with the camera does not have the same flavor as a real-life exchange, but remains an excellent way to keep in touch with your colleagues and move forward on your issues, all while feeling as though you are surrounded by your colleagues.

To conclude

The implementation of remote working does not in any way mean the end of social interactions between colleagues, even if it tends to redefine it. Today, if it is complicated to be able to see each other, many digital tools make it possible to keep in touch. Instant messaging, videoconferencing, telecommuting pensions, the end of office travel linked to changing habits and desires, is not synonymous with the end of meetings between colleagues. Technology is evolving, meetings are being digitized, but nothing prevents management teams and team members from organizing new types of meetings in order to enjoy a good time away from everyday problems.

We hope you enjoyed this article and that it will help you maintain and even strengthen the bond between you and your employees. This is a very important element in these times. If you would like to know more about Jamespot, please contact us for a personalized demonstration! Are you one of those who prefer to test the tool themselves? The free 30-day trial should interest you: launch your Jamespot platform, invite your collaborators and let's go!