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 organisations) and usually they 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 which do not interfere with normal work day and yet add a slight fun flavour to the whole environment and encourage interaction.
Our workforce is mostly married between 25-40 age group.
thank you for your ideas.
P. Agarwal
From India, Ludhiana
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 organisations) and usually they 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 which do not interfere with normal work day and yet add a slight fun flavour to the whole environment and encourage interaction.
Our workforce is mostly married between 25-40 age group.
thank you for your ideas.
P. Agarwal
From India, Ludhiana
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, service industry ?
If you all are located in same city, you can have `All employees Meet' and invite their interaction on various business topics. Have some cultural programme at the end of 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 few team games there.
You can start sport competitions, games like carrom, tennis, even cricket matches on weekly off.
Moreover, you can invite ideas from your employees itself, they will be enchanted to provide !!!!
Regards,
Vaishalee
From India, Pune
175Are your other employees located in the same city where your organization is ?
Also state what your organization is into i.e. manufacturing, IT, service industry ?
If you all are located in same city, you can have `All employees Meet' and invite their interaction on various business topics. Have some cultural programme at the end of 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 few team games there.
You can start sport competitions, games like carrom, tennis, even cricket matches on weekly off.
Moreover, you can invite ideas from your employees itself, they will be enchanted to provide !!!!
Regards,
Vaishalee
From India, Pune
Dear P Agarwal,
Fun and being happy at work is an crucial issue and most organizations unfortunately don't pay attention to this area.
Thank you for sharing this problem and before we comment or give ideas ; will you please inform us the following :
1. Have you conducted the ESS ( Employmeny Satisfaction Survey) ?
2. A lot of times such environment as mentioned by you is largely driven by the Top Management, hence how open is your culture ?. have you measured OCTAPACE of your organization ?.
3. How have you arrived at this idea ?..has it derived from the high attrition rate or analysis of the exit interviews ?
Understanding this issue at the core is where it help one to formulate better strategies. Frankly speaking an outing on a weekend or so may not really help unless one understands where the bottleneck lies !.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Rajat Joshi
From India, Pune
Fun and being happy at work is an crucial issue and most organizations unfortunately don't pay attention to this area.
Thank you for sharing this problem and before we comment or give ideas ; will you please inform us the following :
1. Have you conducted the ESS ( Employmeny Satisfaction Survey) ?
2. A lot of times such environment as mentioned by you is largely driven by the Top Management, hence how open is your culture ?. have you measured OCTAPACE of your organization ?.
3. How have you arrived at this idea ?..has it derived from the high attrition rate or analysis of the exit interviews ?
Understanding this issue at the core is where it help one to formulate better strategies. Frankly speaking an outing on a weekend or so may not really help unless one understands where the bottleneck lies !.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best Regards,
Rajat Joshi
From India, Pune
Dear Mr. Agarwal,
Today we need to understand that the stress level of people are high and most of them are groping in the dark for a solution. In such 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 are to be considered before taking corrective measures. Only after interaction with your staffs is it possible to come out with strategies and ideas to overcome this problem.
All the best
Regards
Ravindran
From India, Delhi
Today we need to understand that the stress level of people are high and most of them are groping in the dark for a solution. In such 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 are to be considered before taking corrective measures. Only after interaction with your staffs is it possible to come out with strategies and ideas to overcome this problem.
All the best
Regards
Ravindran
From India, Delhi
Couple of fast and easy ideas:
Have a list of everyone's birthday and have a monthly cake for all those whose birthday falls that month (we are an organisation of 100 people on 3 floors and would therefore have 1 cake per floor).
Organise morning teas (we do one a month) in which the organisation get together for half an hour, talks about results and what has happened (each department hosts it in turn) and then you share tea cofee and something to eat.
Organise pizza lunches (or something like that) again, informal way to get together - you can nominate different people from different departments at different times if 100 are too many.
Twice a year organise excursions (we go 10 pin bowling or karaoke).
Enjoy!!!
Regards
Paula
From Australia, Darlinghurst
Have a list of everyone's birthday and have a monthly cake for all those whose birthday falls that month (we are an organisation of 100 people on 3 floors and would therefore have 1 cake per floor).
Organise morning teas (we do one a month) in which the organisation get together for half an hour, talks about results and what has happened (each department hosts it in turn) and then you share tea cofee and something to eat.
Organise pizza lunches (or something like that) again, informal way to get together - you can nominate different people from different departments at different times if 100 are too many.
Twice a year organise excursions (we go 10 pin bowling or karaoke).
Enjoy!!!
Regards
Paula
From Australia, Darlinghurst
Dear Agarwal,
As you said the age group of your employees is between 25-40 Yrs most of them are married and have to have work life balence.The best way to encourage your employees fro informal relations is to have atleast a family gathering.You can name it as a Family day have the employees encouraged.Apart from this you can also take the employees for outbound training so as to have a change and good relations among themselves.
Regards,
Sarfaraz Nawaz
Consultant - ER,Recruitment,HR & Knowledge management.
From India, Kurnool
As you said the age group of your employees is between 25-40 Yrs most of them are married and have to have work life balence.The best way to encourage your employees fro informal relations is to have atleast a family gathering.You can name it as a Family day have the employees encouraged.Apart from this you can also take the employees for outbound training so as to have a change and good relations among themselves.
Regards,
Sarfaraz Nawaz
Consultant - ER,Recruitment,HR & Knowledge management.
From India, Kurnool
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 leaving a session for problem solving i.e. someone from one department would raise an issue that s/he is 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
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 leaving a session for problem solving i.e. someone from one department would raise an issue that s/he is 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
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 leaving a session for problem solving i.e. someone from one department would raise an issue that s/he is 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
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 leaving a session for problem solving i.e. someone from one department would raise an issue that s/he is 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
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