With the COVID-19 pandemic now entering year three, organizations are
looking at how to rebuild their fractured teams. However, is bringing
everyone back to the office the best (or only) solution? Catherine
Mattiske, the globally recognized training expert and CEO of TPC — The
Performance Company, shares seven tips on how organizations can rebuild
during the pandemic:
While some employees get energized by social interaction and will likely enjoy coming back to work, others get energized by working independently and would prefer to stay home. “If you need teams to undertake physical work, they need to be in a physical space. However, if not, they can connect remotely,” says Catherine. “Why push them out of the space where they’ll produce their best work?” Smart organizations enable workers to continue working remotely and are becoming more and more commonplace, as:
- A 2022 Pew Research Center study says 61% of employees with a workplace outside their home are still choosing to work from home.
- A 2021 PwC survey says 83% of employers say the shift to remote work has been successful for their company.
- A 2021 McKinsey survey says one in three workers said returning to the office negatively impacted their mental health.
Hybrid meetings won’t be ending soon. As some employees begin coming
back to the office, team leaders may be tempted to focus on them during
meetings, simply because they are physically in the same space. This
causes virtual participants to feel like they’re sitting in coach while
their in-room colleagues are getting first-class treatment. An easy way
to negate this is to engage hybrid meetings with a “virtual first”
attitude, asking questions of virtual participants first, as well as
engaging their questions and answers first. Another idea is to assign an
in-room colleague to each virtual participant to ensure they aren’t
having connection issues and are getting the files/links everyone else
is viewing.
With COVID-19, The Great Resignation, inflation, and the war in Ukraine,
smooth sailing on the horizon is certainly not a certainty. “We need to
learn to be agile and adaptable, and this is a learned skill,” says
Catherine. To give employees greater resilience and pivotability when
the unexpected strikes, Catherine suggests training them in the five
attributes of Learning Agility, which upskills them in thinking
critically about complex problems, understanding people and working
effectively with them, living inside new and first-time situations,
delivering results by deadlines regardless of circumstances, and fueling
one’s self to constantly improve.
“Everyone fits into a specific set of learning, listening, and
communication preferences,” says Catherine. “Once your employees
understand both their preferences and the preferences of everyone they
work with, they can begin to build translation bridges. This means
catering their communication to the exact way that perks up another’s
listening or stimulates their learning. By doing this, team rapport and
trust will begin to regrow much more quickly.”
“Instead of employees feeling like disparate parts of something once
whole, create team rituals to build chemistry and grow connection,” says
Catherine. This can involve something fun like everyone naming their
favorite song or sharing their favorite ice cream flavor at the
beginning of a hybrid meeting, or recognizing birthdays and
anniversaries with an edited-together video greeting from everyone.
Check in with everyone — virtually, via email, or in-person — and ask
them how they’re doing. Is every team member happy with the amount of
work they currently have? Do they feel overburdened or burnt out? If so,
how can the organization support them? This helps create a sense of
trust, empathy, and connection that is missing in a workforce that
continually adds to The Great Resignation.
