Back in March, we shared our first month of working from home with you, keeping a diary of how we were adapting to lockdown life at Aire. Six months on, we’ve found our rhythm and refined our approach.
Becci, our Office Manager, shares what we’ve learnt.
When I first interviewed at Aire, I asked one of the co-founders what keeps him in his role — what did he love about his job? His response was simple: the people. At the time I didn’t give this much thought, but his answer has come back to me so many times.
According to McKinsey & Co, who have written extensively around reimagining the post pandemic workforce, ‘informal interactions provide a starting point for collegial relationships in which people collaborate on areas of shared interest, thereby bridging organisational silos and strengthening social networks and shared trust within your company.’
Operating as a remote-first workforce, we know we need to put effort into creating ways our squad can have these informal interactions — after all there are no chats in the kitchen anymore.
Here’s what we’ve learnt from each other:
We’ve found that sharing experiences enhances bonds between colleagues.
We approached this head on, with a panel discussion that covered ‘The Good, The Bad & The Ugly’ of working from home. This ended up being a wonderful, gentle sharing of experiences. Many more than just the panellists spoke up. Tips were shared and people felt safe enough to show their vulnerability.
Another initiative has been speed chatting: using Zoom breakout rooms to create the opportunity for our squad to speak with colleagues they don’t directly work with. We teamed people into small groups, armed them with a conversation starter and they were off! A quick reshuffle, a new conversation starter and off they went again…
I did name all the different rooms after ex Arsenal football players — for some that was an issue — but other than that it was very well received! So much so we now tag this on to the end of our monthly Mission Updates.
We know that company-wide sharing of information is now even more important.
We’ve always connected monthly for Aire Mission Updates and now run them virtually. These are an opportunity for individuals or teams to update the rest of the squad on what they’ve been working on. It’s never just our executive team telling us what’s going on. The participants are from all levels of the squad. It has a very informal feel to it, with people asking questions throughout the presentations.
We also use these as an opportunity to look outward: whether it’s a market update from one of our Aire Fellows or a drop-in from one of our investors, this is an opportunity to learn and to inspire — and our feedback surveys confirm that for me afterwards.
We all benefit when we look out for others — and help when we can.
At the beginning of lockdown it became clear that our office cleaner would suffer financially through loss of work while offices were closed. We immediately set up a collection for her, which Aire agreed to match.
For me this was one of the most incredible ways to reinforce our sense of belonging. I saw how nearly everyone wanted to help, eagerly. We pulled together to assist a colleague.
The comments that I heard while organising this collection, such as ‘this feels so Aire!’ left me in no doubt of just how this connected us all.
Another initiative we’ve prioritised during the period has been our Wellbeing Champions, a team from across the business who come together to put in place both physical and mental health initiatives to look after us all. From individual check-ins, to our monthly Wellbeing Survey to our recently launched #30daysofactivity campaign — encouraging each other to get outside and get active.
Last December, Harvard Business Review looked into the cost of exclusion in the workforce. Their findings? ‘High belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days. Employees with higher workplace belonging also showed 167% increase in their employee promoter score (their willingness to recommend their company to others).’
So, in summary, the co-founder who interviewed me was absolutely correct: it really is all about the people.
Building relationships and staying connected with each other creates a strong workforce, one that can rely on each other during these uncertain times. These connections enable us to show compassion and empathy for one another, all of which contributes to a happy and productive team.
Believing the future of work to be based around true flexibility for all employees, this month marks a more permanent shift for Aire as we become a remote-first business, leaving our home at Curtain Road for our collective homes across the country — for now at least.
So while our ‘why’ at Aire remains unchanged, our ‘how’ is different. What’s clear for us though is that whatever the set up, staying truly, authentically connected is what matters to us most.
