How to Maintain a Better Sense of Community Among Employees - Especially Now

The Coronavirus has been greatly affecting the way we work and interact, and companies have been responding swiftly - postponing or re-imagining events, implementing new travel policies and encouraging workers to work from home if possible. The biggest underlying thread of these latest changes? Getting people, physically, further away from one another. At Proxfinity, our business is bringing people together - and we understand the importance of true, human connection, no matter its form.

So while sequestering employees to the confines of their homes to work or cancelling gatherings where they’d normally interact is helping minimize health risks, it also brings about the challenges and implications of isolation. Taking care of employees’ physical well-being is part of the battle, as employers need to be mindful of mental and emotional health as well. In a recent study of 6,000 participants by Cigna, they found that loneliness is on a staggering rise - 61% of US adults note they are lonely, which is up 8% from 2018. At the heart of these alarming stats is the increased use of technology that filters relationships through a screen as we become more dependent on digital tools to communicate and get work done. In fact, according to a recent survey - almost half of an employee’s time spent communicating is through technology versus in-person. But technology doesn’t have to be a hindrance.

The loss of interaction can have severe implications for the business community. Most notably, lonely workers note they are less engaged and, as result, less productive. In fact, 12% of workers say their work quality is less than what it should be, and the report cites that remote workers are more likely to sometimes or always feel alone. Interpersonal interaction and relationships are such a lifeblood to workplaces that 60% of workers said that they would be more inclined to stay with a company if they had more friends within that environment. To put it simply, business is built on connection.

The challenge now is that we live in an age where that has gotten harder. Technology affords conveniences and cost savings we can’t ignore, and the Coronavirus is reshaping the workforce and how we conduct meetings by limiting our ability to be in-person. But that doesn’t mean we can’t still effectively relationship build, and in fact, technology can help us establish even stronger connections and teams. 

At Proxfinity, we see how we can make the often impersonal digital work-stream more personal. With Proxfinity, our platform is driven by our back-end software that allows us to aggregate data and identify trends about an audience. A company simply has its employees fill out a survey about their interests, hobbies, challenges - whatever it may be - and we give them patterns that serve as pathways to connection. This data allows employees to better connect with one another on the similarities they share - be it through a messaging app like Slack, or in a virtual meeting chatroom. If you know ahead of time the people interested in the same topics as you, you can develop helpful digital groups and conversation channels. If Employee A is interested in connecting with people who want to learn more about a new company software plug-in, they’d be able to reach out accordingly. Even similarities as simple as same taste in music could give people a springboard for conversation that helps people feel less alone, even if they are so physically.

Secondly, while companies may be limiting the time employees spend gathered together, they can still maximize the time they do spend if their office spaces are open, or when they resume on location. Our CUE smart badge is useful for any type of group environment, not just meetings. Imagine during busy lunch hours where employees are intermingling, CUE can register people that have shared interests as they come in proximity to one another, but is totally hands free. In this way, we can still get people talking, sharing and investing in one another so they feel less alone and more motivated - while still limiting health risk via physical contact.

We can’t predict how the Coronavirus will continue to shape the work environment, but we can respond to it in real-time by remembering that relationships are the lifeblood of success and with technology, and not in spite of it, we can still optimize those relationships.

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