It didn’t take long for companies to figure out what remote employees needed to do their jobs successfully: comparable equipment to what they had in the office, virtual collaboration tools and leeway with working hours. While the initial pandemic-driven shift to remote work was rocky — to say the least — the end result has been increased productivity. A 2022 report from the Slack-backed research group Future Forum found that remote individual contributors were 6 percent more productive and that remote workers with fully flexible schedules were 29 percent more productive.
Companies have seemingly cracked the code on ensuring remote workers are as productive from home or a coffee shop as in the office. How to keep people from feeling lonely and disconnected from their teammates remains a challenge, though, and it’s one that needs to be solved if the full promise of remote work is to be realized.
Internship programs are as much about providing camaraderie and connection as they are training new talent. Doing the former in a remote world is difficult, especially when the programming isn’t designed to be delivered digitally. Colette Boynton, manager of training and development at tech consultancy and managed services provider Ensono, told Built In Chicago how her team managed to keep interns in a pivotal program engaged and connected after pivoting to fully remote work in 2020.
What’s the key to creating real, human connection in the remote workplace?
Today’s workforce, remote or not, requires companies to demonstrate investment in associates and their development and to provide support and safety so they can authentically be themselves at work. This can be particularly challenging in remote and hybrid environments, so companies need to find new and innovative ways to accomplish that.
The most successful strategy was to provide weekly opportunities for collaboration and engagement.”
What’s the most successful strategy or initiative you’ve employed for actually facilitating those kinds of connections?
In 2020, our Ensono intern academy had to pivot to a fully remote program. The internship includes our critical mainframe academy program, or MFA, which develops much-needed entry-level talent. The advantage of the remote program was that we were able to pull from a much more geographically diverse talent pool, and the largest challenge was how to provide connection and camaraderie. The most successful strategy was to provide weekly opportunities for collaboration and engagement.
The first week we held daily coffee chats where everyone simply discussed how things were going and had an opportunity to ask questions. We utilized a platform called Flipgrid that allowed us to pose questions to the interns, who responded through one-to-three minute videos that everyone could view and provide feedback and comments on. This helped put faces to names and let personalities show through. And although there were specific training topics and leadership panel sessions, we also ensured there were opportunities to purely socialize, such as through playing online games and team-building exercises.
What impact has this initiative had on your workforce?
While virtual interactions cannot truly replace in-person ones, the IT workforce’s ability to be agile and adaptive is remarkable. Many opportunities crashed during Covid; we figured out ways to not only keep people employed but also how to continue offering opportunities. The positive impact made on lives through our company and programs like MFA cannot be measured. I witnessed individuals shedding tears of joy at being able to find employment during difficult times.
Establishing real human connections in the remote workplace is about more than scheduling virtual and in-person opportunities to socialize. It’s also about ensuring asynchronous teams can still connect and collaborate. Fanette Singer, chief marketing officer at insurtech company Convr, said the company’s marketing team follows a specific code that promotes accountability to keep messages from being left on read.
What’s the key to creating real, human connection in the remote workplace?’
The key to creating real, human connection in the remote workplace is twofold: Bring your whole self to work and be reliably available and responsive.
The key for us is very frequent and committed conversations.”
What’s the most successful strategy or initiative you’ve employed for actually facilitating those kinds of connections?
Our people services director, Kelly Palumbo-Doyle, organizes a variety of in-person and virtual events, from cooking and sports clubs to virtual games and trivia to our twice annual all-hands meetings. Other departments, like mine, gather in-person multiple times a year to just work around the table together, share a lunch and enjoy each other’s company. Additionally, we have a code in marketing to be committed to each other with near-immediate responses to any question or need. We talk throughout the day via Microsoft Teams calls, chat and email, and often via text, too. The key for us is very frequent and committed conversations.
What impact has this initiative had on your workforce?
The impact of our team commitment starts with our core values: We bring them to every interaction and demonstrate them in how we show up to work. They are: success, convr-sation, integrity, responsibility and passion.
Success: We’re obsessed with delivering successful outcomes and lasting world-class experiences for every customer, partner, team member and investor. Convr-sation: We foster a “best idea wins culture,” inspiring continuous innovation and creativity. Integrity: We commit team Convr to the highest standards of integrity and ethics. Responsibility: We get it done together, as a team. Passion: We make it personal. We’re a smart, passionate and fearless team committed to leaving a legacy.
With these values and our commitment to deep and real connections, Convr is a place where we expect everyone to go above and beyond in their daily work and also in their support of each other. One specific example from the marketing team revolved around the launch of our new website. There wasn’t a department in the company that didn’t weigh in and support the development of new and exciting content from videos to motion graphics. The end result is something we’re all extremely proud of and that our visitors find very valuable and engaging.
