How the Sociabble Team Keeps it Social while Working Remotely

Working remotely has become the norm for companies around the world due to the health crisis. In this blog post, we’ll share what we did here at Sociabble to keep the sense of connection and team spirit alive while working from home.

Working remotely can be tough. But employees don’t have to feel alone.

We can probably all agree on this: working from home can be challenging. Not only do you need to find a way to create a good working environment in the place where you live, but also you might feel a bit isolated without your colleagues around. Especially when, as was the case here at Sociabble, the whole team suddenly has to switch to a 100% remote scenario, as so many companies have had to do in 2020.

No more coffee breaks, no more jokes around the water cooler, no more fun afterwork events. So how can you keep it social when everyone is working from home?

With a bit of planning, remote work can be a unifying experience.

To confront these challenges here at Sociabble, we quickly implemented a series of new routines to ensure the SB team stayed aligned and effective while working remotely. Daily 15-minute “stand up” meetings were put in place every morning within each department.

A “Town Hall” meeting in live streaming was organized every Friday by the CEO of Sociabble, Jean-Louis, to update the entire team on important company news, and to address all the questions asked by the team. It was important to take the time to remove any doubts, especially while working at a distance, which we all know can be difficult.

But in addition to that, more informal meetings were established as well, such as an optional 15-minute “live coffee” where the SB team could gather and have informal chats and discussions, sometimes regarding work, but sometimes just for fun.

Sometimes, a little fun and games can be a good thing.

Another initiative led by one of Sociabble’s in-house consultants was an internal competition called “My Little Confinement.” It was particularly important at a time when everyone was confined at home, to make things more fun and keep the social link alive, even during a period of uncertainty. Several small contests were held, encouraging the SB team to participate and share their activities while working from home.

They could, for instance, earn points for sharing a yummy vegan recipe, participate in a live workout session with other colleagues, send photos of their compost or other DIY projects, make a small donation to an association of their choice, give an online class, or even share a book or a playlist they found helpful while working remotely.

At Sociabble, we used a series of fun contests and challenges to keep team spirit alive and well when the entire team had to work remotely.

Thanks to these efforts, Sociabble was able to keep the team spirit alive.

Initiatives like those mentioned above can really have a positive effect. In total, our contest has generated 168 posts, 343 comments, and 1,055 likes on the Sociabble platform to date. All participants were offered a tree planted in their name, and the winner received a “survival kit” with French chocolate from Brittany and other tasty treats. The experience was fun, and helped the SB team maintain their crucial link, despite being widely dispersed and at home.

We also discovered quite a few unknown talents among the team, such as cooking, drawing, home improvement, and even unique linguistic skills, to name a few!

If you’d like to learn more about work opportunities at Sociabble, click here.