As we continue living and working during the pandemic, there is one challenge that many companies find in common. How do you successfully lead a workforce that was intended to be together in one office location? With the second wave of COVID-19 hitting us now, company leaders find themselves putting their reentry plans on hold, some with no return date in sight.
So the question is – how do we create some excitement with the “same old same old” after almost 4 months of zoom meetings?! There needs to be a real strategy to maintain the tie between employer and employee other than virtual meetings and an occasional virtual happy hour mixed in there for fun! How do you maintain employee engagement and connectedness in this virtual environment?
Our recommendation is starting a mentoring program to create a common bond between seasoned leaders and senior staff at your company with newer and possibly younger team members. Here are a few very valid reasons to start a mentoring program as we enter 3Q.
- Personal growth/development
- Employee retention & engagement
- Stronger teamwork
- Enhanced communications across company
- Improved onboarding process for new hires
- Shows the importance of your employees
Implementing a back to basics mentoring program now makes a tremendous amount of sense. Mentoring effectively creates powerful and meaningful bonds within the company, increases employee retention and engagement, and breaks up the monotony of living in a COVID-19 world.
A 12-month mentoring program is relatively easy to start while at the same time giving employees something new and different to focus on. Mentoring gives newer and possibly younger employees a different level of engagement and interaction to employees they don’t normally work with, and from a cost perspective it is low cost or no cost to set up and administer. When you look at the program itself quite objectively, there is tremendous upside and little or no downside – that’s always a win, win!
If you need help getting started with a mentoring program let us know, we can help.
On a different and more whimsical note, do the words to this popular 80’s song ring true to our current times and your quarantining experience?? Just thought I would throw this out there for a bit of a diversion this week!
Tears for Fears – Mad World
All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces – (too many zoom meetings?)
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere – (haven’t left the house in weeks?)
Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression – (quarantining too long?)
Hide my head I want to drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow – (oh now, it is going to be okay!)
And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you ’cause I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it’s a very, very
Mad world, mad world…