With many staff working from home the investment firm is using technology to boost morale
Much has been written in the past year about the huge work-from-home shift that the pandemic has sparked.
But while many embrace the pause of the daily commute and the ability to do their job from the kitchen table, many others are mourning the benefits of a shared workplace.
Keeping up morale in a remote-working team is a challenge for investment firms where a buzzing office culture helps drive success, but there are ways to be creative to keep teams engaged.
Wealthsimple staff typically enjoy free lunches as one of the perks of working for the Toronto-headquartered firm. So, when working life went remote and meetings went virtual, the firm adapted the shared experience of lunch.
By paying for lunch to be delivered to staff and encouraging teams to join together online to eat, the firm is helping to keep alive the culture it is proud of.
Randi Lippert works at Wealthsimple in the UK having relocated from Canada just before the lockdown in March 2020 and spent limited time in the office before having to work from home.
"Remote lunches have been an amazing way to have dedicated time and space to socialise with my colleagues," she told the BBC. "It has truly cultivated a sense of camaraderie and support during what has been an extremely weird and often isolating time."
Benefits of a virtual lunch
In 2015, Dell and Deloitte trialled ‘virtual socialising’ after realising that remote workers’ interactions with team members was generally formal, lacking the informal interactions of a physical workplace.
By holding virtual lunches, they were able to generate informal ‘workplace’ socialising and encourage free thought.
Deloitte reported that the sessions provided “an excellent substitute for the informal networking sessions that are enjoyed by centralised teams,” while acknowledging the constraints of virtual socialising.
The trail provided several recommendations for successful sessions including:
- Food is essential.
- Numbers should be kept low.
- Participants should be willing and genuinely interested.
With work-from-home set to remain for some time as the pandemic continues to disrupt normal life - and many companies and employees likely to adopt remote working long-term - finding ways to beat the loneliness reported by remote workers and help maintain team spirit will be essential.
