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The Main Challenge
We do what we preach. That’s why we carry out internal Quantifly analysis every 3-4 months. In the analysis of November 2021, poor social connectedness was highlighted as a central issue.
The circumstances identified as contributing to poor results were the hybrid way of working, which led to a part of the company working mostly from home. The very rapid growth of the company and the scaling up of the team further reduced social connectedness.
Goals
The aim was to increase social connectedness among employees and improve the indicator at the next analysis.
Obstacles
The circumstances that initially contributed to the poor social connectedness (hybrid working, rapid company growth) have not changed after the analysis.
An additional obstacle was the overload of the management, which, although it wanted to ensure good social connectedness among employees, did not have the time capacity to take active steps in this area.
The solution
Together with management, we identified and prioritized key areas for improvement. Once the key areas for improvement were identified with management, the results of the analysis and the recommended areas for development were shared with other coworkers. To ensure that the changes are implemented, we wanted to actively involve all the employees in the planning and implementation process.
That's why we held a workshop where we could make suggestions and take responsibility for making changes in different areas.
Workshop for employees
The workshop was held in the middle of January by two of our in-house psychologists. It was divided into two parts and focused on three key areas that were voted on by the employees (social connectedness, cooperation between teams, employee development).
1. Collecting proposals/ideas
In the first part, we brainstormed a wide range of ideas on how to improve the selected areas.
One of the areas we focused on was social connectedness. Team members gave different ideas for activities that could improve social connectedness, such as:
- drinking coffee or tea together,
- monthly team building events,
- weekly lunches together,
- celebrating birthdays,
- space dedicated for socializing (e.g. sofas in the room),
- activities outside working hours (coffee, evening drinks, concerts, etc.),
- celebration of our successes/achievements.
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Everyone voted on which of these measures they considered most appropriate or would like to implement the most. The measure with the highest number of votes was "Celebrating successes/achievements together".
2. Action plan
In the second part of the workshop, the employees were divided into groups and each group was given the task of preparing an action plan for one of the measures.
Within the action plan, we had to write down what we were going to do (what are the first three steps), when and where it was going to happen, and what impact it would have.
The group in charge of drawing up an action plan to celebrate common successes/achievements decided to hold the celebrations on the last Friday of each month in the office.
The intended effects were to improve employee connectedness and motivation, and to recognise the efforts made by employees to achieve the monthly targets.
In short, their steps were as followed:
- Gathering information on what our monthly objectives were and what we achieved (within each team)
- Presenting this information to employees - e.g. a Slack post
- Organizing a celebration on site (buying supplies, invitations, etc.)
The outcome
In January, the first celebration of successes/achievements was held, where all three steps were implemented. We have found that this kind of group celebration was well received among our team members and it really brought us closer together. The celebrations were therefore continued in February, March and April and it became a regular practice.
What else have we implemented?
Organizing achievement celebrations once a month is certainly not the only thing that has had an impact on social connectedness, and it is difficult to speak of an isolated effect.
Over the past months, in addition to the monthly celebrations, other rituals have built up unintentionally and have had an impact on social connectedness.
In January, we did not yet have the space to hold such gatherings, so in February we rearranged one of our existing offices to create a space dedicated exclusively for gatherings (this was also suggested by employees at the workshop).
More and more employees also started working on site and spontaneous lunches became a habit.
In addition to the already mentioned celebrations, a separate room and group lunches, other ideas initiated by employees have also taken root. These include:
- socializing outside working hours,
- coffee/tea in the common room,
- teambuilding in March.
The impact
You are probably wondering how all this affected the result of the next analysis, which we carried out in March.
We can definitely say that the measures have been successfully implemented and the result is a higher social connectedness among employees.
