Working from home is here to stay. Over the last lockdown-centric year, businesses have realised that they do not need to pay exorbitant rent to keep workers engaged and on task, and many employees (especially those with parental responsibilities) enjoy the flexibility that working from home allows. What this does mean is that companies need work-from-home protocols to maintain optimum efficiency. There is a vibe that comes along with a variety of personalities occupying an office space (body language, quick chit-chats between desks and calls, lunch dates and all of the social interaction that keeps us inspired and motivated)—can this be replicated virtually? Forbes offers some top tips on how to stay connected:

Over the past year, most businesses would have figured out the following:

• Chat apps: instant messaging can be a life-saver as far as quick answers and staying connected. Apps like Slack, Teams, Whatsapp etc. have become ‘daily bread’ for thriving company comms.
• Videoconferencing: face-to-face conversation can happen over Zoom, Skype, Teams, Google Hangouts etc. This format has been revolutionary in enabling businesses to operate with staff at home.
• Protocols: as soon as instant messaging is at play, there is an assumption that responses should be immediate. This is not always necessary or practical, and employees manage their time differently. Team leads would have quickly realised that setting up some protocols for videoconferencing and chat apps is a great way to keep communication between team members both efficient and productive.

A year on, it’s about keeping employees happy at work without all of the face-to-face social interactions that would typically happen during office hours. Productivity is important but so is morale—and this is achieved by keeping people and teams unified at work. Some ways to do this are:

• Company meeting: meet every week (share important news), with games every second week.
• Add some fun to ongoing team comms (‘bring a crazy hat to meeting’ and celebrate birthdays). Also organise extra-curricular activities tailored to the personalities on your team, like a sport meet-up, online gaming or TV episode/movie viewings.
• Bring your child/pet to work day: they’re likely call-bombing anyway, why not celebrate?
• Virtual happy hour.
• Tea-time chat: have a question of the day (favourite holiday, funniest story, ‘have you met a celebrity?’) and bring answer and a cuppa to the ‘staying sane’ or ‘wellbeing’ call.

Human beings are social creatures and although some are introverts, others extroverts and many somewhere in-between, for morale to be up at work employees need to feel like they are part of a team. This will make conversations and decisions from CRM and sales pitching to deciding on the best energy provider and general ops management that much easier.

At CG Systems we service all kinds of businesses. For all your energy related questions, feel free to contact the CG Systems team on info@cgsystems.cc.