The impact of COVID-19 has forced companies to switch to remote working very quickly. The transition to home working has gone reasonably well across varying industries, especially when you consider the short amount of time businesses have had to prepare and organise for such a change. This is also especially pertinent for those businesses who have not previously adopted remote working within their teams before.

At the time, it was unclear as to when people could return to the office and for many, this is still very much the case. The reality is that home working will become a way of working life for the foreseeable future. Therefore, employers have had to become increasingly more creative and innovative in their management styles to keep moral, employee wellbeing and productivity at the forefront.

In the immediate aftermath of the mass shift to remote working, many businesses were quick to implement and launch initiatives that would maintain some sort of normality, preserve company culture and care for employee wellbeing from a distance.

It remains crucial for teams to regularly communicate with one another, and many businesses have adopted such tools as Slack and Google Hangouts for online communication. Social isolation can greatly impact a team, and many managers have been scheduling virtual lunch breaks using these tools to help beat isolation and improve mental wellbeing.

Publicis Group, for example, set up ‘Publicis Plug-in’ to support the mental wellbeing of its UK employees. It is a daily schedule of online activities such as yoga, coffee mornings, mindfulness sessions and foreign language tutorials that people are encouraged to tune into to help them feel more connected to their colleagues.

As the lockdown continues and the impact of Covid-19 is felt across more offices, sessions will soon include more practical workshops on topics such as how to protect your mental health while working from home, how to build remote relationships, and juggling work and childcare at home.

London based WPP’s Mediacom has introduced, yoga, mindfulness and daily wellbeing sessions taking place at 12:45 each day to mark the start of lunch breaks and are used as a complete ‘time out’ session from anything work related.  

They have also adopted ‘Mental Health Ally Check-ins’ which sees a network of over 60 Mental Health Allies in the Mediacom London office host twice-weekly check-in sessions to give people the opportunity to chat about how they are coping working remotely, any concerns they have or just a general chat that doesn’t revolve around work.

Global agency ‘We Are Social’ instructed its employees to work from home the week before the government imposed such measures to non-essential businesses. Across the business, employees grouped together and launched a wide range of activities to keep people connected.

A ‘Home not Alone’ Facebook group was set up to share activities such as yoga, HIIT classes, or a teach skill. A ‘We Are Social Cooks’ group was also established, showing people what to use in their kitchen cupboards to maintain a healthy diet during lockdown.

For those who are isolating alone, an initiative was set up called ‘Cuppa Chance’ which allows people to have a virtual coffee with their colleagues, acting as a mid-morning/mid-afternoon break away from the desk and allowing people to catch up with members from their team and wider network.   

Programmes have also been put into place by some employers that offer free counselling sessions for those who are struggling with isolation or their mental health during this time. Such measures have been established incredibly quickly by both management and employees to ensure its workforce has felt supported.

Such initiatives are proving incredibly successful for employee wellbeing and shows just how much we need to look after ourselves and each other at this time of unprecedented change.

This is an incredibly unique period that we are living in, and it is important to understand the individual circumstances of each employee – from whether they are living in a crowded flat share to juggling childcare and work from home. There cannot be a ‘one size fits all’ approach to supporting people and therefore managers should discuss and seek to understand what each individual needs and how they and the organisation can best support those needs throughout the working from home period.

If you need additional support during this time or wish to discuss ways and ideas to improve the wellbeing of employees who are working from home, please do contact us today on 01625 428926 or enquiries@sitrusconsulting.com