Work From Home Tips: How to Keep the Connection With the Team While Working Apart

Remote working can either help you strengthen your familial relationships or disconnect you from your colleagues. Having one in hand from these options may drastically affect your productivity and zeal to work. But fear not, because you don't necessarily need to choose. You can have them both. With this in mind, you may have to consider first reconnecting with your team while working apart.

Since this health crisis has impeded us from personal and intimate meetings, today’s digital age allowed us to connect with people anywhere in the globe virtually. While the COVID-19 precautionary measures of social distancing have been implemented throughout the globe, home workers should not distance themselves at work, and that includes the people they share the work with.

There are many ways to keep in touch with your team and improve both connectivity and cohesion together.

Schedule Constant Calls and Virtual Meetings

Virtual meetings don’t necessarily mean talking formally and sternly about a new project or a designation of new tasks. It should also refer to casual chats. Creating non-work-related spaces generates a close bond among colleagues where you can freely share news; hobbies; a list of recommendations for a playlist, movies, and recipes to help each other relieve from boredom and stress; individual milestones; day-to-day accomplishments; different means of motivation; or just venting out their everyday struggles. This socialization stimulates long-lasting friendships and boosts teamwork for the overall productivity of the company.

Hold Virtual Lunches or Coffee Breaks

For office workers, having lunch together or going for coffee is a usual way to connect, and there's no reason why home workers can’t do the same. You can meet and pair up with different employees to connect via video conference. Sharing a cup of joe and good food with good colleagues slash friends, even virtually, help strengthen work relationships.

Conduct and Join Team Activities

Since outdoor team buildings are yet prohibited momentarily, your team can decide on conducting and participating in friendly competitions, not the work competitions to herald the employee of the month. These light-hearted, non-work-related competitions are similar to ice breakers that give everyone a pause from the heavy workloads. This can be a guessing game or online game that is easy, fun, entertaining, and creative for everyone.

Set up Virtual Health Classes

Having no physical barrier between work and personal time may risk your health and leave an impact on your productivity. By this means, prioritize virtual health-advancing activities that the team can benefit from such as meditation sessions, remote yoga classes, Zumba dances, or even healthy snack time. Set schedules for virtual health classes away from working hours. Taking care of your body together is taking care of your company too.

Following these suggestions doesn’t need to be on a daily basis. Scheduling these virtual events can be done once a week or depending on the circumstances while keeping each worker's availability in mind.

Understand that working remotely doesn’t need to feel so remote at all. Your team can get through the challenges of work-from-home or even the global threat of COVID-19 by sparing no effort to keep the connection together. When you strive hard to maintain the work relationships, you support the company to flourish continuously.