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We hear around us more and more that working from home can make one feel lonely. According to Piet Fortuin, president of the trade union CNV, home workers yearn for an informal chat and seeing their colleagues. After 1.5 years of working from home, we understand the lonely feelings that working from home can evoke. At the same time, we can't ignore it: working from home won't disappear anymore. Working from home also offers many advantages and, fortunately, does not always have to be lonely. But how do you prevent these lonely feelings among home workers? Maret gives in this blog 7 tips & tricks to make sure employees feel seen, heard and appreciated.
Tip 1: Just check in.
If you ask homeworkers what they have missed most in the past 1.5 years, many will answer that they have missed each other and informal contact. Just because you work from home doesn't mean this has to be missing. Start the day with a quick check-in with your colleagues. For example, use team chat where you use a GIF to show how your weekend was or send a smiley face to show how you and your colleagues are feeling. Or start each morning with 15 minutes of video calls in which you drink a cup of coffee together.
You can also assign colleagues to come up with a short warm-up for each day to start the day, for example using music, a quiz, a short yoga exercise or an online board game. It may require a little more creativity than at the office, but there are plenty of opportunities to start the day off right together! And are you a little less creative? Then a simple message with a "Good morning, how are you today?" always suffices too.
Tip 2: Share what you do
As a work-at-home mom, you're probably curious about what your colleagues perform throughout the day. And if you are curious about your colleagues, they are probably curious about you and your work. Share the things you do, like or dislike. Send a message in the chat when you have completed a project, share the end result by sharing your screen during a meeting, call a colleague to spar about a new client you want to bring in, and so on. By sharing experiences with each other you learn more about the organization and your colleagues and you automatically feel more involved with each other.
Tip 3: Turn on the radio
There are home workers who enjoy the silence around them and haven't missed the office garden for a second. But there are also a lot of home workers who are more productive when there is some murmur. That's exactly what is often missing at home, especially if you live alone. Focusing too much on your work without any distractions increases the feeling of loneliness and does not always benefit your performance. A small break or distraction often brings new insights. Now that the chatter and informal conversations with colleagues are more often absent, turning on the radio can already help. Good music in the background as motivation or a conversation coming into your workplace via the radio can help take your mind off things.
Tip 4: Proactive leadership
Working from home not only requires a different way of working for the employees within an organization, but certainly also for managers. Working from home makes it even more important for managers to adopt a proactive attitude. A blog from Trends in HR (2021) gives tips on how to do this. This starts with developing a supportive culture where your employees feel safe and heard. Recognize that employees are dealing with loneliness to a greater or lesser extent, bring this topic up in work meetings or performance reviews and continue to take the initiative to discuss it with each other.
It is important not only to pay attention to approachable colleagues, but also to proactively connect with the more withdrawn and introverted employees. Give them a call, seek them out via chat or email and don't give up if you don't get an immediate response. You can achieve a lot with attention and interest, also with the withdrawn home workers.
Tip 5: Express your appreciation
Feeling lonely often means that you don't feel connected. You experience a lack of a close, emotional bond with colleagues. It feels like you are alone in something, no longer part of a team and not seen in the work you perform. It is even more important to feel appreciated and seen when working from home. Especially as a manager, there is a lot to be gained here. Thank colleagues in the group chat for working overtime, regularly reflect on important results and express your appreciation by, for example, sending a bar of chocolate, a bouquet of flowers or a card with a personal message to be delivered to the home of colleagues. In this way, home workers feel more seen, heard and appreciated.
Tip 6: Asynchronous communication
We wrote about it earlier in our white paper on hybrid working: asynchronous communication. What exactly does this mean? Homeworkers don't walk down the corridors where colleagues in the office share the latest news and they don't stand at the coffee machine before the meeting to share news. In order to reinforce the feeling that homeworkers also belong and are kept up to date and thus prevent feelings of loneliness, it is important that all communication takes place asynchronously and is bundled here, for example in the team chat or on the intranet. By sharing information, for example an update from the board or an informal announcement such as a pregnancy, birthday or departure, asynchronously you involve all homeworkers in the events that are taking place within the company.
Tip 7: Plan days at the office
The work-at-home advice has been relaxed somewhat and the 1.5-meter society has all but been dropped. But, this does not mean that we will return to the office en masse. The advice is to work from home if you can. And if we've learned anything over the past 1.5 years, it's that we can do more work from home than thought before the corona crisis.
Nevertheless, there is now more room to go to the office every now and then. Plan these days at the office carefully! Measurements by the Arbo Unie (2021) show that colleagues especially missed each other while working from home. To reduce the feeling of loneliness and increase the feeling of social cohesion and connection, you can, for example, schedule a day when the entire team works together at the office for a day. On that day, consciously pay attention to social contact and connection within the team. For example, set aside time to "socialize," have an extensive team lunch, and give a tour of the office to new employees within the team.
Do you still not manage to return to the office with the whole team? Or do you feel uncomfortable doing so? Then plan collaborative days. Visit that colleague at home for an afternoon, to brainstorm together in the backyard instead of online from behind a screen. Put the laptops next to each other and let's get to work!
Want more tips & tricks on working from home or hybrid? Then keep checking our blogs and socials keep an eye on the website or take a noncommittal contact on for a customized online training!
