It’s always been true that employees thrive in workplace settings rich in culture. As humans, we do best in situations where we feel a sense of camaraderie, have the opportunity to build connections, and a sense of belonging with our colleagues.
The results from McKinsey’s 2021 Great Attrition Survey back this thinking.
It was recently reported that more than half of employees that left their job in the past six months didn’t feel valued by their organizations or their managers, and lacked a sense of belonging.
Many organizations have tried to replicate in-office connection through various virtual initiatives but results have been mixed, with some work-from-home employees viewing virtual social obligations as a burden on their already busy schedules.
Balancing disconnect, burnout and overwork is important for virtual culture initiatives to be successful, but the only way to do that is to gauge employee appetite for these organized events.
At Humani, we’re big on getting employee feedback. Recently, we surveyed our team for insight into what they’re loving, and what they could do without when it comes to our workplace culture.
We asked them:
- How can we become a closer team outside of work?
- What team social activities are you most interested in participating in?
- What could we be doing better? Do you have suggestions on how to expand on existing events?
The results were overwhelmingly positive, with everyone surveyed expressing a continued desire for deeper connection through ongoing opportunities. Needless to say, we were smiling from ear to ear. Our key takeaways below.
1. Close-knit teams value informal connection in building deeper professional relationships.
While everyone who was surveyed referenced ongoing opportunities for both social and professional catch-ups, the one thing that carried through was the need for more informal meeting time where conversations could stray from corporate and client topics. People want to share stories, learn about others, and build relationships on a personal level.
2. Culture isn’t dead, even if it is virtual.
Online games and challenges like escape rooms and trivia, virtual lunches, and coffee dates were all activities that rated highly positive by the team in terms of their interest in participating. This tells us that people are still looking for ways to relationship build, even from the comfort of home. With this feedback, we know that creating noteworthy culture through unique and curated experiences is possible, even if it is from afar.
3. Ideas for building connection can come from anywhere, not just the top down.
Limiting brainstorming to leadership and managers alone is doing your employees a disservice. Our team came up with some brilliant ideas for how to continue to expand our virtual events, and we’re excited to implement them 2022.Whether you’re in-office or still working remotely, it’s worth the investment in employee surveys to better understand the sentiment of your workforce. Connections can be forged, but not forced, so do the leg-work to figure out what works best for your talent.
