What do you do when almost all your employees have to work from home overnight? Irene Heikens is director of Centramed, a mutual insurer for medical liability at healthcare institutions. Donatus She experienced it. On a Thursday, she was still at an external meeting with around twenty people, where everyone poured coffee for each other and sat right next to each other. That same day, the board and management team held a crisis meeting and decided that almost all employees would work from home from the next day.

The organisation immediately went into organising mode. Does everyone have the right equipment at home? Do we have the right meeting apps? What do we do about the travel and home-working allowances? When can people collect things from the office, and who is allowed to be at the office? They also agreed that all managers would keep in touch with their team members several times a week. At the same time, the work went on, and for an insurer in healthcare it was a busy and tense time, with a lot of consultation with the affiliated healthcare institutions.

Digital has pros and cons

So the team was thrown in at the deep end: how do you meet digitally in a good way, internally and with clients? "And phew, I found that quite hard," says Irene. "In a tense time, not being able to look each other straight in the eye, exchange that look, get a feel for the atmosphere. Digital is efficient, but I did miss the real interaction." She also sometimes found it deadly tiring: going from one digital meeting to the next without getting out of your chair, and without catching your breath over coffee with a colleague.

The same applied to the employees, of course. From the start there was one big worry: how do we keep our people engaged and connected, how do they keep going, and how do we keep our finger on the pulse? Irene first responded from her gut: simply call a few employees every day, with only the questions "How are you?" and "How are you holding up?"

Some colleagues found working from home fine. It gave them room and they worked efficiently. But many others found it intense and sometimes even had a hard time. Irene heard very personal stories, about teenagers on the sofa, missing social contacts or the fear of falling ill. She also shared what it did to her, and that led to surprisingly good conversations.

A personal blog

As a result, she started emailing a personal blog to all employees almost every week, about how she was experiencing this period. Sometimes very positive, such as having lunch in the garden with her husband and daughter. Sometimes about her own worries: "I miss a chat at the coffee machine, a knowing look during a meeting, a quick joke in between." And now and then with a tip, such as allowing yourself a moment's rest with a good book in the sun, an hour of exercise in between or a game with your children.

That went down well, because many people recognised themselves in it. Employees even emailed back with good ideas to make working life a bit more fun.

A shared feeling

In the management team, the feeling grew that alongside all the formal matters, such as extra team meetings, good facilities at home, tailored arrangements for certain employees and a digital quarterly meeting, there also had to be attention for atmosphere and culture. Various playful initiatives followed:

  • all employees received two bunches of tulips: one for themselves and one to give to someone around them who was having a hard time
  • an online pub quiz, with a package with something to drink and a bag of nuts sent in advance
  • before the holidays, a package with sunglasses and a frisbee
  • a photo collage of everyone's home workspace, for which everyone sent in a photo of themselves, sometimes hilarious

Does that really help you stay connected? They seem like small, almost trivial gestures. Yet they kept doing them, because all the initiatives are seen as a sign of appreciation. And it sets the tone for contact between colleagues. People feel free to simply get in touch with a colleague now and then, without it immediately having to be about work.

Conclusion

Arrange the basics employees need to work well from home, to work together and, where necessary, to be safe at the office, and do it quickly and well. That brings satisfaction, trust and calm. But invest precisely in the small and the personal too. That way you keep feeling the connection you otherwise experience when a colleague asks at the coffee machine on Monday morning: "So… how was your weekend?"

Also read what makes a successful team? and every day a party: 5 working-from-home hacks.

About this article: this piece is based on a blog by Irene Heikens.

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