Working during the corona crisis: Five tips for the best long-distance relationships with your staff

Anyone who has ever lived in a long-distance relationship for a short or long period of time knows the challenges that can come with it. Long-distance relationships put partners to the test and pitfalls lurk everywhere. This is true not only for romantic partnerships but also in a professional context. The fact is that working in a home office set-up is now the reality for many companies due to the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

Simon von Hertzberg, COO at the travel tech start-up Holidu, names five typical problem situations and gives tips on how to work together at a distance and how to build up closeness to the employee despite a lack of shared everyday life.

"I just don't understand you!"

Anyone who has been in a personal long-distance relationship knows the hour-long phone calls or Skype conversations in the evening. Direct exchange between partners is important, and this applies just as much to professional cooperation between colleagues. While one-on-one conversations conducted online usually still work well, meetings with several people are a particular challenge. If some staff members are sitting in the office and another portion are dialling in online from home, there are often acoustic problems. The sound quality is unsatisfactory and when employees in the office ask a question, colleagues at home often cannot understand it and everything has to be repeated by the meeting moderators. Especially for larger meetings, it, therefore, helps to have a "remote first" approach, where all colleagues dial in online, even if some are in the office. This way, everyone has the same discussion conditions.

And how can brainstorming sessions be held virtually? This is indeed tricky. The conversation dynamics of colleagues in the office can change much faster. Colleagues in the home office find it harder to get a word in edgewise and cannot spontaneously join the conversation or interject ideas. This is why good preparation is particularly helpful in virtual meetings. Instead of interjecting ideas during the meeting, they can be collected in advance and summarised into a proposal. Alternatively, various online tools offer the possibility to efficiently implement classic brainstorming techniques in a virtual setting.

"Write me a letter again! Or send me a video!"

For many, asynchronous communication is the tool of choice and an alternative as well as a supplement to meetings. Here, information is usually provided in writing and noted at a later, appropriate time. But this does not always have to be a written e-mail or chat message. Other formats such as videos or voice messages create more variety. Why not record an explanatory video? This way, information is conveyed more personally than in written form. In this way, colleagues are visible and communication seems more human. A picture sometimes says more than a thousand words, a video more than a thousand pictures.

A combination of video and text is helpful for large team meetings. Meetings are recorded as videos and these are then sent to all participants with a written summary. If a staff member had to leave the meeting due to technical problems, the flow of information is still guaranteed. Important changes and news should also be documented on the intranet or company wikis so that they are always available and collected in a central place.

“We don't do anything nice together anymore!”

It doesn't matter whether it's a start-up or an established company: For years, much more emphasis has been placed on team building and casual events such as playing foosball together or enjoying a 'Friday Beer'. This way, employees can informally exchange ideas and talk about topics not directly related to work. But what do you do when all your colleagues are working from home? 

In order to maintain cohesion and personal exchange, regular activities should also be offered during corona times. One simple possibility is lunch lottery dates, where colleagues are paired up at random and the partners arrange to meet online at lunchtime. ‘Trivia Nights', which take place weekly in pubs as quiz evenings in the British and Irish tradition, are another option. Team spirit and fitness are guaranteed by yoga sessions in the morning, whether in the office or online during corona times. 

The corona-related hygiene and distance rules also lead to new, more creative meeting forms. The conversation with the employee can be held on a walk, for example. At team events, colleagues meet outside in the fresh air for a guided tour of the city instead of going to the pub in the evening. With all offers for personal meetings, however, companies should not only adhere to the official corona rules but also take into account and sensitively handle the individual disposition of employees and their attitudes such as personal fears or risk factors in the family.

"You don't even care about me anymore!"

Many employees state that they work much more efficiently in a home office set-up. Not only is the daily commute no longer necessary, but also the small talk with colleagues at the coffee machine or printer. But this exchange is important and strengthens the relationship between employees. In the virtual setting, there is often no space for this. Colleagues should consciously make time for such personal conversations remotely. In this way, one does not lose the personal connection to each other, builds bonds and shows interest in the other person. Managers, in particular, should take this to heart, because it makes it easier for them to recognise and address possible insecurities or dissatisfaction among team members. Colleagues can also meet for weekly "Virtual Team Coffee Dates", where they deliberately exchange ideas informally. The meetings are not about professional topics, but there is room for personal things. 

A regular employee survey helps to record the mood in the team and gather feedback. In this way, employees feel valued and involved. There are now many providers and tools that make such surveys easy to conduct and evaluate. Direct feedback can be given in large team meetings if questions are asked in advance. This can be done anonymously with the appropriate tools so that sometimes sensitive issues that are on the minds of employees can be articulated. With the use of appropriate software, this is also possible live. In this way, meeting participants can interact directly and receive answers.

"Make me laugh again!"

If only expedient information is exchanged, the team spirit and the joy of work suffers. This is just as true for life partners who only tell each other on the phone what they did during the day as it is for work colleagues who only work through items on the agenda. But things can also be taken with humour in virtual meetings: For example, the boss can open a meeting with a funny background and show that he doesn't always take himself so seriously. Or why not make presentations playful and share amusing anecdotes? Gamification can also be used for many projects, i.e. an approach that motivates employees with typical elements from games. A video or karaoke challenge between different teams is fun and even asynchronously creates a personal connection between teams that rarely see each other in the home office.

"Where do we go from here?"

According to surveys, the main reason for the failure of a personal long-distance relationship is the lack of progress in a partnership. What can companies learn from this? It is important to listen to each other, to be flexible and to have a positive perspective of the future even in uncertain times. The world of work has changed permanently due to corona and companies should seize the opportunities which come with the new reality.