The SOS Bookkeeping understand that the Covid-19 pandemic came along and shook up the work dynamic in a big way. We’d had cloud technology and remote working available for some time. But the pandemic acted as a catalyst for pushing remote working as a viable, everyday work option.
So, how do you entice our people back from their suburban homes and into your office? Here are some tips from the SOS Bookkeeping team:
- Make your workspace more inviting – Can you redesign the layout to add different work zones?. Have a hotdesking area alongside breakout tables, and informal areas to make the office feel less formal and more like a home-from-home.
- Offer perks and benefits in the office – if there are perks of being in the office, your team will be more incentivised to work here. Whether that is coffee and fruit or offering gym memberships or cycle-to-work schemes that add tangible benefits to signing up to work a certain number of weekly hours from your HQ.
- Have more in-person meetings – Researchers have found that video conferencing hampers idea generation, so our reliance on technology might come at a cost of creativity. While Zoom, Teams and Google Meet can be invaluable for collaborating across timezones, it’s worthwhile, to encourage your team to meet in person also. Run more of your internal and client catch-ups as face-to-face meetings and have team huddles on a given morning in the office.
- Encourage in-person mentoring and education – one thing that remote workers miss out on is face-to-face mentoring. Try pairing up senior and junior staff members and giving them an assigned mentoring day to work together at HQ. And think about offering extra-curricular training sessions and ‘lunch ‘n’ learns’ to help people upskill and learn new capabilities.
- Get creative with your ideas – to tempt people back, you’ve got to offer some fun too. Try a ‘Bring your pet to work’ day, so people can bring their pandemic pooch to the office. Run more charity events where people can get into the spirit and work on their team bonding. Or offer after-work sports and leisure activities, like yoga, five-a-side football, quizzes, cookery classes etc. Anything out of the ordinary that will appeal to a workforce that’s getting a little bored of working on their own from home.
If you would like to discuss your business needs. Call SOS Bookkeeping on 01 849 5131 or email shane@sosbookkeeping.ie For the latest business/practice news, taxation/financial resources and our Newsletter, visit https://sosbookkeeping.ie/