Regardless of whether you have chosen to work remotely or in the hybrid model and irrespective of whether you are planning to encourage as many employees as possible to return to the office, it is worth remembering how current times have changed the organizational culture, atmosphere and overall attitude of employees to companies. The challenges of the pandemic force us to give greater regard and support to our teams. Experience of continuous high level of stress and anxiety as well as social and health concerns additionally exacerbate problems of employees, having an impact on their productivity and efficiency at work.
It is worth, especially in this tough time, to encourage people to find some time to get together in a place free from emotions and preferably one away from work.
One may ask: ‘Is it worth it?’ In my opinion – very much so. This is exactly what we enjoy doing at RST every year.
It was easy to have spontaneous chats or go out with colleagues while working onsite. The remote working has changed it. If working from home were temporary, we could expect that everything would eventually turn out ok. However, it will not be like that as working remotely in IT is doing well and I think it will stay that way. Team-bonding events are one of the effective ways to strengthen ties in teams that work remotely or in the hybrid model
— Łukasz Wróbel (CTO at RST Software)
I believe that each of us can have a significant influence on company’s organizational culture. Team-bonding events give us an unusual opportunity for a casual conversation and take a look at the company from a different perspective. On the one hand, it is an opportunity to meet new people, learn about their needs, interests and sense of humour. On the other, a sense of pride and belonging to a group is the moment when we are all together and enjoy each other.
Team-bonding events are particularly important to us. They allow us to get to know each other better, which in turn helps us work more efficiently. We owe to them a friendly working atmosphere nurturing our sense of belonging to the organisation, a factor that nowadays is so important both for the employer and the employee.
— Karolina Zych (HR Director at RST Software)
At RST we have a few permanent events. We don’t reward our colleagues for attending them, but we always encourage everyone to join us. People from different branches, towns, projects and teams come together in one place.
Check and ask what your employees need; should you focus on sport and physical activity or maybe on partying, chilling out and relaxing? Knowing needs of the team will, with all certainty, bring us closer to achieving the goal. We can figure out every action and set our own, individual targets. RST never forces anyone to attend, but we check how many people knew about and signed up for a particular event, whether the participation trend is up or down compared to previous occasions, we analyse factors that may affect attendance. We often try to ask everyone if they saw the message at all and whether they know that an occasion that is important for us is coming up. After every event we conduct a survey. Asking appropriate questions and embracing feedback allows us to better prepare for future events.