Teamwork is hard! And if you are sitting miles away, it’s even harder! But when you need to put heads together and push through, you have to put problems aside and grind out the work productivity right? Well, that’s a reality that has become even more difficult in the post-pandemic world. People management at most businesses needs a massive overhaul and without demanding a pretty price tag.
Strangely enough, the answer lies in taking back control of technology and investing in colleagues. But how do you do that when working hybrid? Through virtual coffee chats! The biggest new trend in employee engagement programs is putting colleagues together at random for a casual chat. This may sound non-related to bonding for work but really makes a lot of difference.
A recently released employee engagement survey study by McKinsey stated that “Workers are hungry for trust, social cohesion, and purpose. They want to feel that their contributions are recognized and that their team is truly collaborative.”
Clearly, the need for effective employee engagement activities is imminent across businesses worldwide. This is particularly beneficial for enhancing cultural diversity and fostering greater cohesion in company DEI frameworks. This is where visual interaction and collaboration-based employee engagement tools come in clutch for managers. Here are five reasons why virtual coffee chat software holds the key to unlocking the business performance of hybrid teams:
Virtual Coffee Chat Apps: The Best Employee Engagement Software
Organic Bonding
Creating a tight-knit workspace is a harder task than most people recognize. There is a lot of behavioral and social psychology, interpersonal communication, and social empathy involved. In many cases, team collaboration may suffer despite all the best policies and intentions.
The problem lies in making people do things that are not organic or natural. The solution lies in creating holistic workspaces where people come together naturally. Of course, you can also add virtual coffee chat apps to your team collaboration software like Slack or MS Teams. These apps pair match members together and foster organic communication between peers through visual interaction.
Studies suggest that 81% of employees rate peer collaboration apps positively. This means talking to peers for casual chats and peer-based learning produces positive responses. Further, they enable managers to create peer review systems like the buddy system for better people management.
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Team Watercooler Chats
In the old days when COBOL and a ruled the workplace tech, watercoolers were gathering points for workers. Everyone gathered around the spot and traded work news or shared jokes. This concept is now being revived by team collaboration apps and platforms!
The idea is simple! The manager takes a department or a team and puts up a common discussion point for them. Anyone who wants to contribute to the discussion can do that and managers can pair topics together across channels to create better cross-team dynamics.
The key benefit that watercooler moments offers has to do with team forum engagements. Managers have the option to use them for continuous employee engagement, one-time or ongoing feedback, or conducting team-building exercises. This is particularly true for hybrid teams which need more cohesive team-building and employee engagement activities.
Cultural Insights
Virtual coffee chats in hybrid environments offer a lot of data points for creating cultural insights. The most important of these is the part where they can chalk up collaboration potential. Studies by McKinsey show that hybrid workers like it when they can touch base with on-office colleagues while working remotely. This is crucial for keeping them abreast of workspace ongoings for real-time team collaboration. It also has the chance to alleviate work and job security-related stresses. Understanding what kind of pair bonds and buddy referral systems work in the hybrid scenario helps managers handle their teams better.
Moreover, employee engagement-driven cultural insights helps develop mentorship programs and chart career growth options. This is a strong motivation for workers especially in hybrid settings since it creates the ideal foregrounding for their security and success. Doing this and other employee growth activities helps managers generate organic business performance growth year-on-year.
Support for DEI Activities
Since the pandemic, a lot of articles on Forbes, Business Insider and other prestigious magazines have talked of implementing actionable DEI plans. While diversity remains a hot topic for global businesses, implementation is varied and demands a hands-on approach. The benefits of DEI for workplaces are no longer a question to answer. DEI-enabled businesses stand to gain more global traction from their cultural diversity. The question is how it is best implemented. And this is where employee engagement apps that include visual collaboration-oriented features like the ones we mentioned above.
Both virtual coffee chats and watercooler moments enable greater organic integration of culturally diverse terms. The benefit here lies in the direct interaction factor and derived data for people management and ops. Managers and HR tech experts can use this data to correlate with external advisories and create valid DEI policy structures. They can also use the data to develop dynamic team collaboration policies that actually work for them. The possibilities are endless as long as people and data are actionably put together.
Seamless New Hire Onboarding
According to the World Economic Forum, about 40% of office workers are unhappy with their jobs and this leads to low productivity. While the techniques for employee engagement vary, everyone agrees the problem begins with onboarding. In fact, some sources claim that as many as 20% of employees leave their workplace within 45 days of joining. So, finding and retaining talent is a challenge, particularly when you bring hybrid worth into the context.
In contrast, a great onboarding experience via visual collaboration means the employee will likely stick with the company for much longer. In fact, this is the case 69% of the time where a positive onboarding leads to people staying with the company for over 3 years.
This is possible with people management driven with organic collaboration via work-social activities like virtual coffee chats. HR tech experts recommend combining work-social activities and scheduling them for regular team collaboration. Using engagement platforms that integrate these functions is the best way. If the intent is to nurture a good work culture, employee engagement apps are the best way to do it.
Do Hybrid Team Collaboration Activities Really Matter?
Employee engagement is the new mantra to grow businesses organically and make them competitive. This is essential for not just optimizing And chances are that companies that make investments in creating human teams now will be ready to transform their businesses to take hybrid workforce productivity but also creating sustainable value. Most managers and CHROs want to put emphasis on team collaboration and engagement tools in 2024. So, investing in these tools and building a strong network of hybrid and remote workers is the way to future business success!
LEAD.bot is a team engagement platform available on with Slack and Teams. It is an all-in-one team development software with features like virtual coffee chats, buddy programs, birthday celebrations & work anniversary celebrations, new hire onboarding programs, and Pulse Surveys.
LEAD.bot also offers cutting-edge Organizational Network Analysis (ONA) for large-scale organizations. Executives and managers use ONA for getting highly-actionable insights and building strong connections across their workforce structures. This encourages the use of innovative employee engagement ideas to connect employees seamlessly! Foster better organizational health, employee retention, and overall performance with this simple app!
LEAD.bot is a product of LEAD.app and we also LEAD.bot’s sister app Sunrize which showcases workplace attendance by graphs right on Slack! Book a demo now!
