Before COVID-19 hit, of the 32.6 million people in the UK labour market, only around 8.7 million workers reported that they sometimes work from home, constituting a little more than 25% of the workforce (Office of National Statistics).
This literally changed overnight, when the UK government announced new measures coming into effect on 23rd March, requiring everyone to work from home unless it is impossible to do so. Now, untold numbers of people are working from home, the majority of whom are doing so for the first time.
Businesses are scrambling to equip employees to work from home, from providing laptops and setting up network systems, to creating new policies and guidelines. But the most immediate effect of millions of workers switching from daily, in-office work to remote work has been the drastic decrease in human connection.
When we work in an office, there are natural opportunities to connect, from small talk and chatting about ongoing projects, to sharing in life’s milestones, like having a child or celebrating 10 years at the company. And these human moments aren’t just niceties – it’s well-documented that feeling socially connected at work has positive effects on mental health, productivity, and engagement.
Human connection is so essential that the World Health Organization is intentionally referring to “physical distancing” instead of “social distancing,” and emphasised at its daily news briefing that while maintaining a physical distance is essential, “it does not mean that socially we have to disconnect…”. Colleagues who previously may have never spoken outside of the office are organising virtual happy hours, and clients who usually rush through conference calls are taking time to share how their cat disconnected their last Zoom call. The power of visual connectedness using video calls and emotional connectedness through sharing videos and written messages of gratitude has been remarkable. In today’s new normal, human connection is more important than ever.
As companies come to grips with the functional and practical considerations for largescale remote working, it’s crucial that they focus on social connections as well. Managers and workers no longer have impromptu opportunities to catch up in the hallway, so businesses need to facilitate regular check-ins online. Check-ins are a quick and easy way to give, and get, feedback, and make sure teams are staying aligned with shared goals – building relationships and trust even while physically apart.
Employees who check in with their manager at least once a week are more than twice as likely to trust their manager and five times less likely to be disengaged, per research by Workhuman. While these check-ins may be easier to oversee at smaller organisations, even the largest enterprises can still manage regular check-ins using cloud-based platforms. Some technology providers are even offering free human-connection software to help businesses navigate the global pandemic.
In such a short space of time, such imagination and innovation has been applied to bridge our physical distances – the development of virtual daily huddles, global department meetings, and even global townhalls, has been amazing. Although we have been forced to be apart – as a team, as a company, as a nation, and as a world – we are more united together now and filled with greater determination than ever before. Combining human centric technologies and our core values, both professional and personal, makes our level of connection even stronger and more resilient. There’s never been a better time to focus on our human connections at home, at work, and in the community and rise to the challenge – coming out stronger on the other side, together.
