Dear All,
I am looking for specific, simple, innovative, and practical ideas to create more informal interaction amongst our staff members. We have about 100 staff members (also a few in other organizations) who usually rarely interact with each other except for work-related issues. What small things could we do to get them to develop more informal relationships? Ideally, we would like to implement small ideas that do not interfere with the normal workday but add a slight fun flavor to the whole environment and encourage interaction. Our workforce is mostly married individuals between the ages of 25-40.
Thank you for your ideas.
P. Agarwal
From India, Ludhiana
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I am looking for specific, simple, innovative, and practical ideas to create more informal interaction amongst our staff members. We have about 100 staff members (also a few in other organizations) who usually rarely interact with each other except for work-related issues. What small things could we do to get them to develop more informal relationships? Ideally, we would like to implement small ideas that do not interfere with the normal workday but add a slight fun flavor to the whole environment and encourage interaction. Our workforce is mostly married individuals between the ages of 25-40.
Thank you for your ideas.
P. Agarwal
From India, Ludhiana
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Hello Mr. Agarwal,
Are your other employees located in the same city where your organization is? Also, state what your organization is into, i.e., manufacturing, IT, or the service industry.
If you all are located in the same city, you can have an 'All Employees Meet' and invite their interaction on various business topics. Have some cultural programs at the end of the session where employees can exhibit their hidden talents.
It will also be a good idea to start inter-departmental picnics in batches by visiting nearby places for a day. This will facilitate forming different groups other than routine groups. Conduct a few team games there.
You can start sports competitions, games like carrom, tennis, and even cricket matches on the weekly off.
Moreover, you can invite ideas from your employees themselves; they will be enchanted to provide!
Regards,
Vaishalee
From India, Pune
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179Are your other employees located in the same city where your organization is? Also, state what your organization is into, i.e., manufacturing, IT, or the service industry.
If you all are located in the same city, you can have an 'All Employees Meet' and invite their interaction on various business topics. Have some cultural programs at the end of the session where employees can exhibit their hidden talents.
It will also be a good idea to start inter-departmental picnics in batches by visiting nearby places for a day. This will facilitate forming different groups other than routine groups. Conduct a few team games there.
You can start sports competitions, games like carrom, tennis, and even cricket matches on the weekly off.
Moreover, you can invite ideas from your employees themselves; they will be enchanted to provide!
Regards,
Vaishalee
From India, Pune
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Dear P Agarwal,
Fun and being happy at work are crucial issues, and most organizations unfortunately don't pay attention to this area.
Thank you for sharing this problem. Before we comment or give ideas, could you please inform us of the following:
1. Have you conducted the ESS (Employee Satisfaction Survey)?
2. A lot of times, such an environment, as mentioned by you, is largely driven by the Top Management. How open is your culture? Have you measured OCTAPACE of your organization?
3. How have you arrived at this idea? Has it been derived from the high attrition rate or analysis of the exit interviews?
Understanding this issue at the core is where it helps one to formulate better strategies. Frankly speaking, an outing on a weekend may not really help unless one understands where the bottleneck lies!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Rajat Joshi
From India, Pune
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Fun and being happy at work are crucial issues, and most organizations unfortunately don't pay attention to this area.
Thank you for sharing this problem. Before we comment or give ideas, could you please inform us of the following:
1. Have you conducted the ESS (Employee Satisfaction Survey)?
2. A lot of times, such an environment, as mentioned by you, is largely driven by the Top Management. How open is your culture? Have you measured OCTAPACE of your organization?
3. How have you arrived at this idea? Has it been derived from the high attrition rate or analysis of the exit interviews?
Understanding this issue at the core is where it helps one to formulate better strategies. Frankly speaking, an outing on a weekend may not really help unless one understands where the bottleneck lies!
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Rajat Joshi
From India, Pune
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Dear Mr. Agarwal,
Today, we need to understand that the stress levels of people are high, and most of them are groping in the dark for a solution. In such a scenario, it is not possible for many to get into the mood of socializing. This apart, you need to investigate if the management is becoming difficult for people to open up to each other.
One solution is to hire an expert to investigate the root cause and make corrections. There are so many factors that need to be considered before taking corrective measures. Only after interacting with your staff is it possible to come up with strategies and ideas to overcome this problem.
All the best.
Regards,
Ravindran
From India, Delhi
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Today, we need to understand that the stress levels of people are high, and most of them are groping in the dark for a solution. In such a scenario, it is not possible for many to get into the mood of socializing. This apart, you need to investigate if the management is becoming difficult for people to open up to each other.
One solution is to hire an expert to investigate the root cause and make corrections. There are so many factors that need to be considered before taking corrective measures. Only after interacting with your staff is it possible to come up with strategies and ideas to overcome this problem.
All the best.
Regards,
Ravindran
From India, Delhi
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Couple of fast and easy ideas:
Have a list of everyone's birthdays and have a monthly cake for all those whose birthday falls in that month (we are an organization of 100 people on 3 floors and would, therefore, have 1 cake per floor).
Organize morning teas (we do one a month) in which the organization gets together for half an hour, talks about results and what has happened (each department hosts it in turn) and then you share tea, coffee, and something to eat.
Organize pizza lunches (or something similar) again, an informal way to get together - you can nominate different people from different departments at different times if 100 are too many.
Twice a year, organize excursions (we go 10 pin bowling or karaoke).
Enjoy!!!
Regards,
Paula
From Australia, Darlinghurst
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Have a list of everyone's birthdays and have a monthly cake for all those whose birthday falls in that month (we are an organization of 100 people on 3 floors and would, therefore, have 1 cake per floor).
Organize morning teas (we do one a month) in which the organization gets together for half an hour, talks about results and what has happened (each department hosts it in turn) and then you share tea, coffee, and something to eat.
Organize pizza lunches (or something similar) again, an informal way to get together - you can nominate different people from different departments at different times if 100 are too many.
Twice a year, organize excursions (we go 10 pin bowling or karaoke).
Enjoy!!!
Regards,
Paula
From Australia, Darlinghurst
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Dear Agarwal,
As you mentioned, the age group of your employees is between 25-40 years. Most of them are married and need to maintain a work-life balance. The best way to encourage informal relations among your employees is to organize a family gathering, perhaps naming it as a Family Day. This event can help boost employee morale. In addition to this, you can consider taking the employees for outbound training to facilitate a change and foster better relations among them.
Regards,
Sarfaraz Nawaz
Consultant - ER, Recruitment, HR & Knowledge Management.
From India, Kurnool
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As you mentioned, the age group of your employees is between 25-40 years. Most of them are married and need to maintain a work-life balance. The best way to encourage informal relations among your employees is to organize a family gathering, perhaps naming it as a Family Day. This event can help boost employee morale. In addition to this, you can consider taking the employees for outbound training to facilitate a change and foster better relations among them.
Regards,
Sarfaraz Nawaz
Consultant - ER, Recruitment, HR & Knowledge Management.
From India, Kurnool
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Hello,
The very first thing to make sure is that all the employees feel that they are part of the organization and, most importantly, they are part of a TEAM. To do this, you may initiate programs like coordination meetings with all the departments and then leave a session for problem-solving, i.e., someone from one department would raise an issue that they are not able to solve, while all who attend the meeting would provide positive inputs on how the problem can be solved. This has a two-fold effect:
1. Making all employees interact more frequently when they meet (since they know what is going on around the office and who is responsible for what).
2. Enriching the knowledge base of all employees both in terms of
a. General problem-solving skills in the workplace
b. Being updated on all issues of the office/company.
I believe, in addition to all the above-stated suggestions, this will also help your purpose.
I hope for the very best of your personal and professional life.
Regards,
Asif Imran
From Bangladesh
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
The very first thing to make sure is that all the employees feel that they are part of the organization and, most importantly, they are part of a TEAM. To do this, you may initiate programs like coordination meetings with all the departments and then leave a session for problem-solving, i.e., someone from one department would raise an issue that they are not able to solve, while all who attend the meeting would provide positive inputs on how the problem can be solved. This has a two-fold effect:
1. Making all employees interact more frequently when they meet (since they know what is going on around the office and who is responsible for what).
2. Enriching the knowledge base of all employees both in terms of
a. General problem-solving skills in the workplace
b. Being updated on all issues of the office/company.
I believe, in addition to all the above-stated suggestions, this will also help your purpose.
I hope for the very best of your personal and professional life.
Regards,
Asif Imran
From Bangladesh
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Hello,
The very first thing to make sure is that all employees feel that they are part of the organization and, most importantly, that they are part of a TEAM. To do this, you may initiate programs like coordination meetings with all departments and then leave a session for problem-solving, i.e., someone from one department would raise an issue that they are not able to solve, while all who attend the meeting would provide positive inputs on how the problem can be solved. This has a two-fold effect:
1. Making all employees interact more frequently when they meet (since they know what is going on around the office and who is responsible for what).
2. Enriching the knowledge base of all employees in terms of:
a. General problem-solving skills in the workplace
b. Being updated on all issues of the office/company.
I believe that, in addition to all the above-stated suggestions, this will also help your purpose.
I hope for the very best in your personal and professional life.
Regards,
Asif Imran
From Bangladesh
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
The very first thing to make sure is that all employees feel that they are part of the organization and, most importantly, that they are part of a TEAM. To do this, you may initiate programs like coordination meetings with all departments and then leave a session for problem-solving, i.e., someone from one department would raise an issue that they are not able to solve, while all who attend the meeting would provide positive inputs on how the problem can be solved. This has a two-fold effect:
1. Making all employees interact more frequently when they meet (since they know what is going on around the office and who is responsible for what).
2. Enriching the knowledge base of all employees in terms of:
a. General problem-solving skills in the workplace
b. Being updated on all issues of the office/company.
I believe that, in addition to all the above-stated suggestions, this will also help your purpose.
I hope for the very best in your personal and professional life.
Regards,
Asif Imran
From Bangladesh
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