It is estimated that prior to the pandemic, 1.7 million people in the UK worked from home, compared to a sizeable jump to around 20 million today (source Business Leader).

A shift towards more flexible home working was already in motion before COVID-19, particularly within sectors such as IT and professional services, but there’s no doubt the pandemic accelerated this trend by proving to businesses that it was a viable option that, contrary to their initial fears, kept the wheels of productivity turning.   

Remote working certainly has its benefits. Firstly, for employees it offers more flexibility with more than three quarters reporting a better work-life balance (source ONS). For organisations, it means having the opportunity to tap into a wider talent pool, and reduce costs by opting for a smaller office space or going fully virtual.

The challenges for leaders

Whilst remote working has now been around for a few years, it still presents a significant challenge for business leaders in creating a highly connected and motivated team. It turns out that once upon a time, seemingly small moments that were impromptu chats by the water cooler, or small talk about weekend plans on way to a meeting, were not so small after all. They were in fact important building blocks of rapport and trust between us and our fellow human co-workers.

In a survey with 61,000 Microsoft employees published in the Journal of Nature Human Behaviour, it was found that the shift to remote working had a detrimental impact upon cross team communication and people’s willingness to invest in relationships with co-workers due to ‘weak ties’ .

Turns out that you can take the human out of the workplace, but you can’t take the human-ness out of working well and achieving great things together. We are and always will be social mammals who build relationships with in person interactions, eye contact, body language, laughing together and bouncing off of the energy in the room. It’s this ‘stuff’ we used to take for granted that adds up to create a cohesive culture where everyone within it can thrive. 

Check in with your team with the 3 C’s

We’re having lots of conversations with leaders around ways to increase the bonds between their team members. One simple but effective model we’ve been using is the 3 C’s of Cohesiveness. This quick and easy to do gauge works as an insightful conversation starter between you and your team, revealing what is working well and what could work even better.

The 3 C’s of Cohesiveness

The process:

For each area you and your team score how much you agree with the statement under each C on a scale of 1 – 10. Decide whether you will score yourselves on each area as a collective after some healthy discussion, or whether you want to send this to each person to complete (openly or anonymously) and take an average.

Note: Take a moment to define what each of the 3 C’s means to you as a team before scoring your level of agreement with the statement.

Connection:

To us, this means…

I feel a part of / We are a connected team, one that values and supports one another to thrive.

Collaboration:

To us, this means…

I feel I have / We have the resources and support to communicate clearly and work well together.

Courage:

To us, this means…

I feel / We feel able to grow and develop within this team, to strive for innovation and step outside my comfort zone.

The results

Now you have some real-time information that will help you to set the priority areas. You’ll have also shown your team that you care and are fully committed to creating a remote team environment that works for all.

What to do next?

Utilise this conversation starter to create ways to move the dial towards 10 for each area as a team. You could task small groups of people to work on each C together, encouraging regular contact away from set team meetings. Then repeat the 3 C’s once a quarter to make sure things continue to improve and celebrate the wins along the way.  

Here’s to you and your team achieving great things together, no matter the geography.

We hope this has been some handy food for thought today. We’ll be sharing our 4 fundamentals of a happy and successful remote team to continue this series, so stay tuned!

Team Evolve

If you would like the team at Evolve to support your people to work, laugh and thrive together please contact us for a free initial consultation – [email protected].