In a post pandemic era, cultivating the right team culture looks distinctly different. From the days when everyone was based in the office and there was no such thing as hybrid working, to today when the workplace landscape is a diverse place to be.
The things you did to improve your team’s wellbeing may have been different and may no longer work and so it is important to move with the times without losing sight of the main goal, which is to make your company a great place to work.
How do you build a company that people thrive in?
1. Establish well balanced working practices.
For example, what is the ‘norm’ when it comes to working hours? Are people expected to work late, start early or work on weekends? Where does this expectation come from? What are the leaders modelling? By working on the common practices, it can help you to create the culture that you want your business to have. It is worth examining your own working practices to see if you could inadvertently be causing your team stress, for example are you emailing them late at night, making them need to reply to you out of work hours for example.
2. Offer support to your employees.
How are employees treated under pressure? Are they given time to level out and destress? Are there areas that people can unwind if they need to? Do you have people available to help them, managers that are trained to effectively support their teams?
3. Ensure you provide the right resources.
Promoting a culture of wellbeing is significantly undermined if your people have more work than they can manage. Ensuring your people have access to the right resources and tools to effectively do their job can help reduce stress and anxiety. Aim to build in provisions for last minute projects and to have contingencies for when staff are off sick rather than expecting your people to pull an all-nighter to facilitate their workload.
4. Get to know your team.
Creating opportunities for you to get to know your team and for them to get to know you is vital for creating a safe place and a culture where wellbeing thrives. Arranging non-negotiable catch ups for example weekly meetings, daily stand ups, days in person – whatever is required to ensure that the team meets consistently, and they understand why.
5. Improve your team's wellbeing by forming meaningful connections.
Long meetings with no purpose will disengage your team fast! Make the connections fun, short and meaningful. Ask a few key questions, get people to share and then let people chat.
6. Streamline your in-person connectivity.
Do you have 6 different platforms where people work together so that connecting can feel overwhelming? Streamline connectivity and make sure there is a mix of online and in person so that everyone’s needs and lifestyles are met.
7. Maintain consistency of your approach.
No matter what you do to improve the wellbeing of your team, make sure it is consistent. Normalise check-ins with team members, make it feel part of routine to ask regularly ‘how are you today’?
8. Give people opportunity to talk and learn about each other.
Create a space in communal areas where people can come to talk to senior execs or leaders on a regular basis. Give people a chance to tell you how they are feeling. Offer wellbeing sessions where people can learn about themselves and their teams stress responses so they can work together better.
9. Make it fun.
Work should not be a dull and boring place to be. Your connections with your team needn’t be formal and boring either. Think outside the box a little at concepts and ideas that might get your team moving, walk and talk, use different ways to communicate like meme of the day or the like.
10. Model the behaviour you wish to see.
The lowest form of behaviour is that that is accepted by the management so decide what is acceptable and what is not and ensure that you are consistently modelling and rewarding the good behaviour. Equally you must be prepared to step up and reprimand the behaviour you do not wish to see before it becomes part of your culture.