Note from Lance: I asked my former employer to do a guest post about some of the cool things they are doing with some of the interesting challenges they face. Today’s author is Kristen Leal who manages QualitySmith’s PR and Talent Strategy. Thanks!
I was filling up my water bottle one day at work when I saw a business card pinned up on the bulletin board above me. It was for a photographer, who happened to work for my company, and did some professional photography on the side. So I headed back to my desk and decided to look up her name in our company email list. I emailed her and asked her if she had some time to come photograph my family. We emailed back and forth a couple of times, and then I decided that I should probably meet with her to go over a couple of things. I emailed her, and asked where her desk was, “It’s two cubes away from yours.” What? Ok, I was feeling pretty lame at this point. Thankfully, she initially thought I was in another wing of the building as well, so we both had a good laugh over it.
But this little instance made me ask the question, “How are we building community in our workplace, when we aren’t talking directly to one another?” Now I must preface my email encounter with a little personal background. First of all, I just started at my company, QualitySmith, this fall, so it’s totally understandable that I wouldn’t know who everyone is and where they sit. Second of all, I only work two days a week, which slows down the process of getting to know the people I work with.
My primary job is raising my two little boys, and before coming to work for my company, I had been out of the work world for five years. Boy, how things have changed. Remember when you first came across email and it was so great to have an instant response from someone? Well, at QualitySmith they have something even faster than email. It’s called Jabber, and everyone has it on their computer. You can send someone an instant message right to their computer. And you know they will respond instantly because the message system indicates if they are at their desk or not. I have chatted with people that I have no idea who they are. Sometimes it can be a little odd, but it is always incredibly efficient.
My company is also unique because we are an online marketing company. So much of what we do involves talking to customers across the country, or making sure our website is at the top of the list when someone types in something like ‘HVAC systems’ into Google. Very little interaction is needed with fellow employees to create a high-functioning company.
QualitySmith is very aware that it would be easy for some of their employees to come to work and stay in their cube all day long before heading home. Since I have been here, though, I have been impressed with how my company has made an effort to create a culture of its own. They do this by taking a simple concept and using it with the purpose of connecting employees and building community. For example, shortly after I arrived here, the company held a “Get to Work Green Day.” Employees were encouraged to carpool, walk, bike, or take public transportation to get to work for one day. One couldn’t help but feel bonded to fellow employees as we rolled in to work together on our bikes. It also helped that we were featured on the front page of our local paper. It made us feel like we had done something together to help contribute to a greener environment, thus connecting us as a team.
I couldn’t possible mention all of the things my company has done to get employees out of their cubes to connect with one another, but some of my favorites, so far, are the brown bag lunches where a guest speaker is brought in. The most recent speaker was from a local food bank. Its needs are dire, and we, as a company, are all bringing donations as a result. Another favorite was a day spent volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. We play an integral part in the construction industry as an online marketing company, but we don’t ever come close to picking up a hammer. It was rewarding to be a part of building someone’s home, and fun to get a little dirty in the process.
We all spend a lot of our time at our desks, including me. But in this age of email and instant Jabber, it’s important to not forget that people need to build community wherever they are. It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. It doesn’t require fancy cocktail parties or extreme outdoor adventures, either. Building community at your workplace can be done by taking a simple concept that people are interested in, and sharing it with everyone.
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Kristen - does it work? It may be hard to tell given that you only work two days a week, but my experience has been that it’s very hard to get people to participate in events like that, and as you noted, with instant and electronic communication, community can often erode.
The Green Commuting event, for example - many companies I’ve worked with would have a hard time getting employees to participate in that. Was participation high at your organization?
I’d love to read some more examples of community building.
- Chris
Chris, I won’t speak for Kristen but when I talked to them about the green event, their parking lot at work was empty.
It has been my experience that the instant electronic environment can actually drive community forward. I think people want to have face to face relationships at work so when you get the opportunity to do something cool, more people seem willing to participate because it drives that “real” interaction.
Hi Chris. Thank you for your question.
As Lance indicated, the get to work green day was a big success, but we did need to do some gentle nudging to get such a great response. However, I think that QualitySmith employees just know that this is part of our culture. I also think that our culture is part of the reason many of the employees apply at QualitySmith to begin with.
Building community takes time. And yes, we don’t always get a great response, but we always need to keep trying. One thing I do see is that we have to try new things. People get burnt-out on doing the same thing. The volunteer work is meaningful, and can be bonding, but we are also mixing it up with some things that are just plain fun. Presently, we are forming teams for the Wii bowling competition in our break room, and I just opened an email that says we have some dress-up days in December - PJ Day, 80s apparel day, and Hideous Holiday Sweater day. Should be a ton of fun.
QualitySmith has always worked very hard to create a sense of community within its walls. They have done a good job with company events like brown bags, office olympics, fantasy football, etc. They always come up with clever ideas to build community within its walls.