We don't meet in person as often, communication is shifted to other channels, so it's harder to share experiences. Just as in everyday life, the conditions for communication in the workplace have changed. The home office, flexible working hours, and digital communication channels have made working more convenient, but without a conscious strategy, they can hinder corporate community building.
When employees work together, share common goals and values, and see themselves as a team, efficiency soars. Everyone becomes the engine of the team, contributing their talents to the collective results. This has a very positive impact on motivation, employee well-being, and group identity, and can increase engagement as well as productivity. Employers can do a lot by recognizing individual and team achievements.
One of the top 3 changes in the labor market in recent years is that the expectations of the latest generation of workers (Gen Z) are very different from those of the past. These new entrants, with whom companies can plan for the future, want meaningful, meaningful workplace relationships. They believe in knowledge sharing, collaboration, and the synergy of individual skills. For them, formal language and complex language are alienating. However, they are not deterred by digitalization and demand more informal communication through diverse channels.
The rise of remote working/home office in suitable jobs has inevitably led to a growing distance between colleagues. Hybrid working has added time and space challenges to corporate community building, and this is something employers need to address. It is best, of course, to be able to provide face-to-face meetings and experiences, but it is also worth using all communication tools to connect in the remaining time. For example, virtual team building and online quizzes can be used for this.
Building a workplace culture is in the mutual interest of employees and employers. A strong team and good community dynamics have a positive impact on workplace culture. This can start with simple things like a good feedback system, or other ways to encourage engagement, joint online and offline programs, etc.
It is important to outline who your target group is, who your employees are and what values you want to convey. To do this, you can use surveys to better understand employee expectations.
You need to find the right platform for building corporate community, not only to improve internal communication, but also to connect employees more effectively. Ideally, you should be able to do this in one system. Choose a platform that is easily accessible from anyone's mobile device, user-friendly and offers a range of functions to benefit you in many areas (e.g. multimedia content, quizzes, educational materials, administration, internal social media, organizing team building programs, running mentoring programs, etc.).
By organizing interesting events and activities for your work team, you can help them become a stronger, more vibrant community. However, it's also worth taking advantage of digital opportunities: you can boost the community with online games, quizzes, virtual coffee breaks, hobby courses, etc.
Guidelines (manuals, policies, training) are also useful for establishing community norms. To create a respectful, inclusive workplace atmosphere and effective collaboration, it may be necessary to regularly raise key issues in internal company communication. What standards do we expect in online communication? etc.)
The success of community building takes time, so check how you're doing with regular measurements. For example, by asking employees to fill in a quarterly questionnaire about community events, you can find out what the most popular initiatives are. Use the digital platform to track what content is most likely to activate colleagues. You can use virtual suggestion boxes to help them tell you what they think could be done to strengthen community life. You can get a lot of valuable information from these measurements. They can also be useful for next steps and to identify areas for improvement.