We are social beings and seeing is believing for us. So when we are expected to work completely remote with teams ,it is very quick for a sense of dissonance to creep in. So the need to stay connected and engaged is twice as much important than when we work out of the same physical office space!

The entire concept of work from Home requires great discipline. This meant a quick guide to setting the rules of engagement and the need to follow routines/ rituals at the workplace become extremely crucial in sustaining productivity. A daily stand up, well defined goals/expectations; quick resolutions, collaborative teams, timely resolutions – all these factors together build the much-needed productive work environment in the WFH era, contributed by a happy and motivated workforce.

The key perhaps is in maintaining a regular flow of communication and rituals and yet making sure it does not smother and border on micro-management holds the answer to the productivity index! Empathy & reassurance that we are all in it together and being compassionate goes a long way in setting the tone and an environment of trust & respect!

At ShareChat, the majority of our workforce is young, and many away from their families and live alone. Seeking regular feedback from them helped us understand some of the issues and put a priority task list to address these issues from the Internet to food!

For instance as a continuation of the food facility that we used to provide at the office premises, ShareChat tied-up with food delivery company Freshmenu to deliver food for the associates depending on their choices.

While these initiatives are addressing employees' concerns around operational support, the company has also stressed upon engaging with the workforce to keep them productive, motivated and most importantly, mentally healthy.

And, we have adopted a simple approach. Instead of trying out newer activities, we focused on continuing our existing initiatives while giving it a digital makeover.

Our office is a young, happening place. The lunch hours at our offices make for some of the best conversations. Now, discussions happen over virtual lunch, where people join from their respective locations for lunch over a video call. People also got creative with home workspace and shared them on Slack.

Every Monday, people at ShareChat experience a new engagement activity to rub off their Monday blues. The newly initiated Work From Home doesn’t stop us from organizing TGIM (Thank God, its Monday) activities. We have started with online games, puzzle solving, etc where associates compete with each other, both individually and as a team.

More than Work from Home, staying at home 24X7 can take a toll on anyone’s mental health. To address that, we have partnered with urbanYogi as our Mindfulness partner where our associates can reach out to the experts throughout the app, without any interference from the company. We have also partnered with White Swan Foundation to moderate a mental health webinar on understanding workplace mental health, taking care of one's mental health during these times, and how to cope with the stress of working from home.

Having a distributed workforce all working from home is here to stay and is going to be the new normal. The sooner we all get comfortable and conduct our day today from on-boarding, induction to planning the entire employee life cycle, and setting the culture as we would otherwise the better iit will equip us for the future. There is no better times (both in terms of Tech and the right thing to do for the environment) than now to embrace this change and make it work in our favor!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house