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How do you build a committed team at the office?
Blog
How do you build a committed team at the office?
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"When individuals have a sense of belonging to a community at work, we found that they are 58% more likely to thrive there, 55% more engaged and 66% more likely to stay with their organization. They experience much less stress and are more likely to thrive outside of work."(1) This postulate from a Harvard Business Review study is our anchor at Worklib. Our aim is to enable every company to build a strong collective that creates the most effective and cohesive teams.
Teamwork within an organization means accepting the challenge of working together. It means jointly defining how objectives are to be achieved, supporting individual employees in their participation in the team, and devoting resources to supporting the collective itself. Easy on paper, not so easy in reality.
In a hybrid working environment, companies are diversifying their internal and external workspaces. The multiplicity of workplaces makes face-to-face meetings more complex. Companies sometimes find it difficult to ensure harmonious intra- and inter-team collaboration. To keep teams engaged, productive and fulfilled, companies need the right strategy and the right management tools.
A Gallup Institute report in 2017 showed that the most engaged teams are 17% more productive and 21% more profitable than those less engaged(2). Right away, we feel like taking a more serious look at the subject, don't we?
And we've got our work cut out for us, as another Gallup study reveals that in 2022, only 6% of French employees will be engaged at work(3). At this point, we'd almost like to call ourselves the dunces of engagement, but let's not give up so easily!
What does an employee need to be truly committed? Faced with this question, we set off in search of the Holy Grail. And our Sherlock mode led us to Google's Aristotle project(4). This 2012 survey reveals the 5 pillars of employee engagement:
In a hybrid working environment, these pillars of commitment need to be nurtured and cared for, taking into account the geographical context. Employees alternate between face-to-face and distance learning. As well as group and individual time. They need to be able to feel engaged in each work configuration, and it's the company that provides them with the right tools to achieve this. A committed individual will then be a resource member for his or her collective. By this we mean a member of the team who can be counted on for his skills, but also for his integration and commitment to the team. They play an active part in making the team cohesive and effective.
For a team to remain committed and effective, it needs to be animated and brought to life. Here are some answers to help you build and lead your teams.
Let's take our Koh Lanta teams as an example. What makes one tribe work better than another? Shared values, mutual support, a strong bond in good times and bad, often a leader who instills the collective dynamic... We observe all this passively from our couch, but the lessons are much richer than we think - what do you mean, you think we're trying to justify our Tuesdays slumped on the couch? No...
Well, when it comes to corporate culture, it's (almost) the same thing. It's based on a well-defined identity that embodies the company and its values. Defining the framework within which the corporate culture is embedded is essential to federate employees.
A company's culture is instilled by the history and personality of its founders, but it's up to employees to make it their own and bring it to life. And to bring this culture to life and make it tangible, face-to-face group time is a very good ally. This brings us to our next point.
Man is a social animal(Aristotle again). By this, the philosopher means living in a community, governed by laws and customs. It's this social animal nature that drives us to live with our peers, in cities or states(5)... or companies. Now, we're adding the company, but you get the idea.
In this sense, sharing moments in person is the basis for creating strong bonds. And given this need, places like the head office are indispensable social anchors. And neither Teams, nor Slack, can recreate bonds of this quality. Without a certain degree of "IRL" connection, the quality of bonds suffers.
Having totem moments to hold on to when the team, the company, is going through a tumultuous period or achieving great accomplishments, is the basis of a collective. Corporate rituals structure team activities and meet the need for commitment and connection. They can be carried out face-to-face or online.
Two examples of rituals to inspire you:
Want to find out more about rituals that strengthen the collective at work? Discover our ebook "How to create bonds in hybrid teams".
At this point, you're probably puzzled: if face-to-face time is so important, is a hybrid strategy still relevant? Absolutely, Captain, because 85% of employees want the freedom to choose where they work(6).
In this sense, our secret formula looks like this: places for every purpose + being able to choose where to work + a strong, committed team = fulfilled, high-performing employees over the long term.
So how can we continue to nurture the links created in the classroom?
Do you know anything more depressing than taking part in a visio in which no one turns on their camera? Or a greater moment of loneliness than catching wind on Slack by sharing a message to which no one responds or reacts? Ouch!
These examples - which I'm sure you've already experienced - illustrate the importance of choosing the right communication tools and, above all, the right way to use them. These tools are there to facilitate the maintenance of long-distance links. They are a great asset, because they can be used anytime, anywhere. Slack, Klaxoon or Random Coffee: there are so many tools to choose from, and it's up to you to select them according to your needs and your ability to make them work for you.
Hybrid working reinvents the way we meet. These common times need to be facilitated, both physically and through digital means. In this sense, integrating a tool that lets you know who's working where and when, enables everyone to acquire the information they need to ensure the smooth running of the interactions they require. Find out more about our high-performance tool.
Once the foundations of your collective life have been laid in the classroom and deployed in all your working environments, don't think that's all there is to it! You'll need to remain attentive and flexible, because needs will evolve.
Surveys and polls help you understand employee commitment, motivation and job satisfaction. These quantitative and qualitative analyses give you a concrete vision of the challenges you face. They provide the basis for making strategic decisions about your team-building strategy.
All organizations are made up of people: they are living collectives, sometimes encountering obstacles and needing to be able to reinvent themselves to better align with objectives.
As you can see, investing in the collective means believing in the members of your teams, offering them a fulfilling working environment and benefiting from the power of collective intelligence. It's good for everyone's health: employees and companies alike!
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<font size="-1">Nos sources</font>
<font size="-1">(1) Rekindling a Sense of Community at Work, HBR, 2022 </font>
<font size="-1">(2) https://qualityincentivecompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Gallup-State-of-the-Global-Workplace-Report-2017_Executive-Summary.pdf </font>
<font size="-1">(3) https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspx </font>
<font size="-1">(4) https://rework.withgoogle.com/jp/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness#identify-dynamics-of-effective-teams </font>
<font size="-1">(5) https://anecdoteshistoriques.com/histoire-antique/homme-est-animal-social/ </font>
<font size="-1">(6) Momentive I Zoom Poll, Février 2022 </font>