According to studies conducted by Gallup in Mexico, 60% of workers feel that they are not in touch with their team, 28% of them are dissatisfied with their work, and only 12% of them are completely satisfied. This situation that was before the Corona pandemic. Now, let's imagine what is the attitude of employees toward their work situation at this stage of the health crisis that we are going through.
The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be getting under control. Eventually, organizations are starting to reinvigorate their businesses. So, we will start living with the “new normal”, but the problem here is how to re-engage with our teams to maintain productivity in a way that ensures their safety.
If we take into account that employees are the most important part in the organization, returning to work after the pandemic must provide and guarantee them safety, protection, and reliability. A lack of focus and energy can lead to a breakdown in communication with them,which leads to several consequences, such as poor work environment, low productivity, fatigue, poor communication, high labor turnover, and thus creating toxic work environments.
The process of reconnecting with your team involves setting a common goal through the process of defining the roles and responsibilities of each team member to achieve that goal. Listening and understanding the interests and concerns of employees can help you build stronger and more loyal relationships with them because this has a great impact on their commitment to work, their motivation, and the effort they make, which in turn leads to positive results.
Provide opportunities for communication between team members
Research conducted by Gallup found that only 13% of workers feel deeply connected to their employer. As a result, they are creative in their work and take charge of their implementation. 63% of them are not interested in their work.
Also, they are unhappy with their work, they are not in harmony with the work environment, and they are like people who are present physically rather than mentally in their workplaces. Moreover, they spend little energy in their work. However, 24% of them are completely out of work, which means they practically hate their job.
As a result, 76% of workers worldwide are not emotionally attached to their workplace and are less inclined to be productive.
Organizations should provide opportunities to reconnect team members who have been lost to the pandemic, such as facilitating off-the-job discussions between employees, gathering their thoughts on health measures to feel safe, and allowing them to express their feelings, show empathy, and build trust between team members.
The role of leaders is important to carry out the process of reintegrating employees at work to facilitate reconnection on a personal and emotional level and to achieve balance at the team level.
Communication with the work team to enable them to adapt to the nature of the new work, whether it is in the company or at home, is one of the concerns of the organizations. 56% of employees around the world who work remotely feel some kind of lack of communication with their companies and colleagues, but the question here is: How can I communicate with my team to achieve my goals?
Key steps to re-establish contact with employees
Here are some of the basic steps that you must follow to re-establish communication with employees in your company:
1. Prepare your team
Inform your team about your next steps at work, whether they return to a corporate office, work from home, or a hybrid workplace.
2. Enhance their participation in decision-making
Listen to their arguments and concerns, and implement healthy procedures that make them feel safe within your organization.
3. Restore social relations between colleagues at work
There are some employees in the company who need more than others to feel a relationship that brings them closer to their colleagues at work.
However, in order for the team to be connected with each other, it is necessary to establish relationships between employees and their colleagues at work. Also, if they continue to work from their homes, it is very important for them to feel this closeness of their teammates at work.
4. Provide stimulating experiences
For example, if you work from home, hold a virtual meeting once a week to give them the opportunity to express how they feel or the tasks they have accomplished, and if the goal of this meeting is to reintegrate them into offices, you can communicate with your team members from a garden or a coffee shop using a wifi network.
A very useful tool for working from home is the so-called “CEO nap,” which is a short 20-30 minute nap in the afternoon; that is, between 1:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon. This helps you regain your mental and physical focus without making you feel lethargic when you wake up.
5. Evaluate your team
Remember that everyone wants others to recognize their presence and appreciate their efforts, and you, as a leader, must fulfill this need with great importance. Also, you can make all team members recognize the distinctive capabilities that a particular employee possesses, not just you.
You can send a message to all team members telling them about a good job done by one of their colleagues and encouraging them to congratulate them on this achievement, and you can do this through social networks. Doing this consistently reminds employees that their role in the company is important.
6. Set challenges and goals
Do not forget that you must maintain communication with your team not only on a personal level, but also on a professional level, and employees must bear in mind the goal of the company, and work to achieve it as well.
The challenge of your employees is crucial because this motivates them to work in a more productive manner and generates adrenaline secretion and a sense of satisfaction from achieving goals.
7. Set boundaries
This point is the most difficult in the implementation process, as limits are usually set for one of the parties to adhere to. In order for us to implement these limits, we must create a balance in the limits that we set, so that we do not manage a detailed management or ignore the results.
8. Encourage self-management from time to time
Establishing a work structure and organizing the work that we must do helps distribute our energy on each task we work on without focusing on just one task.
To regain the ability to focus, it will be necessary to get rid of the distractions that do not contribute to achieving productivity. Working on specific tasks for a long time leads to poor mental clarity.
9. Administrative process
The process of reintegrating work means starting over, so many times we forget that we have a basic tool that can save us from the workload, and this tool is the administrative process, which includes:
- Planning: What will you do? And what will you implement? Determine the desired goals and how to achieve them.
- Organization: How will you do it? It defines the process and the tasks that need to be done to achieve the goals you set.
- The authority supervising the work: Who will do it? Define roles, where you, as a leader, must keep your team motivated to work so that each task is carried out in the most efficient manner.
- Control: Set times and check that each task is done in a timely manner.
Computer downtime causes things like poor communication, leadership, failure to achieve goals, fatigue, and in some cases, laziness. According to Peter Drucker, “60% of work problems are caused by poor communication.”
Maintaining team communication has benefits such as:
- Increased productivity.
- Flexibility.
- General employee safety.
- Create stronger teams.
- More flexible communication.
- Employees' commitment to achieving the goals of the organization.
According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, 73% of workers believe that relationships of trust and reciprocity create a sense of belonging and commitment to the company.
Communicating with your workers, telling them what is expected of them, praising them when they do a good job, encouraging them to progress, and giving them the necessary tools and the opportunity to feel challenged are actions that we can take with employees as a more obvious solution, as they stop feeling disconnected from their team, and they find that their leaders care about their needs.
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