The state of emergency introduced remote work and the home office experience to most Estonian companies. Many companies who had so far only operated from an office understood that functioning in today’s world requires moving online and finding working web solutions that do not require people to be in a specific location.

The positive experiences many businesses had with remote work confirmed that working from home really works.

Increasingly more companies continue to allow their employees to work remotely even after the state of emergency has ended. This increases companies’ flexibility, takes into consideration contemporary changes in the rhythm of life and people’s needs and increases employees’ responsibility.

 

However, it also presents the company with a new problem that executives will inevitably have to face. Namely, a company establishing rules that allow employees to work from home may lead to a situation where some team members do not meet for weeks or even months because they come to the office at different times. This in turn has a negative effect on team communication and therefore on general business development.

In order to maintain the team’s vibe and unity, there is also a need to review the company’s team building traditions from a new perspective.

When corporate culture involved spending time at the office from 8-17 Monday to Friday and absences were not permitted without good reason, it was sufficient for a company to gather its people together a couple of times a year – for summer outings and Christmas parties – and thus show that it cares about its people by strengthening team spirit. Nowadays, however, a company may require events with a completely different focus and purpose that would bring people together and engage them in face-to-face communication.

The focus has shifted from being grateful for communication between employees to improving and activating it.

These are not mutually exclusive, but the company must determine the main focus beforehand in order to achieve the desired result that truly works. This means that executives must also take a closer look at their company’s event marketing strategy and its objectives: how to plan internal communications events and activities that are designed to bring their people together.

The current trend is that events which bring together masses of people are not as popular as before, mainly because nowadays there are many options and people are increasingly vocal about staying true to their beliefs and values – if a corporate event does not seem appealing, people will simply refuse to attend.

Making 1000 people communicate with one another in a way that improves the company’s daily functioning and results is more complicated than doing so with 50 people. Despite virtual solutions, weare moving towards increasingly personalised solutions.

 

Companies that allow employees to work remotely and from home are advised to create event traditions that bring their people together at least once a quarter. This can either take the form of an external teambuilding event or a monthly pancake morning with an interesting guest at the company’s office. In any case, it must be something that connects people and creates a strong team spirit.

The state of emergency brought along many challenges, but it also opened the eyes of many entrepreneurs and executives and freed us from our old patterns.

When organising corporate events, it is important to keep up with the times, notice your people’s needs and break free from the time-old concept of summer and winter outings. It is worth analysing whether the tradition still works in the company today or whether it is something that people simply do year after year. In this case, the best approach to organising the next event is listening to your people and considering their wishes, which presumably also ensures a high participation rate.

In this respect, there is only one thing to remember – what works for one company may not work for others because people are different.

Remember this and shift your attention from the external to the internal – towards your people. Our preferences change over time, but our human needs remain – we will always need acknowledgement, attention and communication. This challenges executives to move with the times and create working strategies in order to ensure that people are inspired and feel like fully valued team members despite the active practice of remote work.

 

Triinu Toomela

Event marketing agency Soulteam

 

The article has appeared on the Best Marketing page!

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