Whether you work full-time or part-time in the remote workplace, at The Grants Hub we see culture as fundamental to everything - something we need to protect and feed in order to thrive. We believe that investing in the people around you and building quality relationships is essential for a happy and productive work environment- we must connect with each other in order to relate well to each other, and that’s when the magic begins to happen. There are simple ways you can bring connection into your day-to-day operations. Here are 3 ways we do it at The Grants Hub:
1. Conversation Starters
Before you dive into the agenda of a meeting, spend 5 minutes connecting, learning about others you work with. Have a laugh and build motivation amongst the team. ‘The Art of Conversation’ is an easy and repeatable game we play at The Grants Hub to achieve this. This game comes with a pack of cards with hundreds of questions, things like ‘What practical trade would you like to learn’ or ‘Which phobia or hang-up would you like to get rid of? It involves some vulnerability, building trust, support and acceptance, all necessary for a deeper connection. Another great game is ‘Would you Rather’ - here’s a link to 250 questions you can access. You simply pose a question like ‘Would you rather have the ability to see 10 minutes into the future or 150 years into the future?’ It builds insightful conversation, allows you to understand what people value, and helps you organically learn and reflect on what matters to people the most. When we tap into this territory we can explore passion and potential.
2. Share Photos
Remote work can be so repetitive and monotonous. Sure, we’ve become a little creative by mixing up the background of our screens so it appears we are working on a beautiful remote island amongst blue seas and palms, but how do we see people where they really are? At The Grants Hub, we’ve done this a couple of different ways. Last year for our annual ‘Be Well Week’ we gave each employee a task to come up with photos representing 5 areas crucial to wellbeing, all of which we highly value within our work environment and employee’s lives: Connect, Get Active, Be Mindful, Keep Learning, Give to Others. This task gave employees an opportunity to get creative, slow down, and acknowledge what’s important in order for them to be the best version of themselves. It gave others ideas to try for themselves too, creating a sense of shared wellbeing. And last but not least, it allowed us to learn about each other, from each other, building a healthy culture together. From time to time, we also just have team members share snaps of their photos, their holidays, or whatever they’re getting up to. We must value people for more than what they just bring to work, it brings out the best in them.
3. Competitions
Many people love a good challenge, a chance to share their competitive edge with colleagues. Each year The Grants Hub provides employees with a Chocolate Allowance - everyone needs a good stash of chocolate to perform at their best right? Ironically this allowance came about by an employee suggesting it would increase productivity ten-fold and a challenge was issued to employees to persuade me why! Anyway, this year we offered to double the chocolate allowance to one employee, he or she who posted a photo of chocolate from their initial allowance being devoured; the winner was judged on creativity and humour. It was a simple way of bringing some fun to the workplace and breaking away from the ordinary to promote motivation (chocolate motivates anyone right!) Sometimes it’s the trivial things that build our culture the most - we are putting energy towards that which matters most - our people.