With the comfort of attending office calls without the video camera in snug-fit pyjamas, who
would want to sit in a conference room with slim-fit formals on? According to an article by
Washington Post, 1 in 3 employees spends over 80% of their work time outside the office
premises. It isn’t all hunky-dory to imagine yourself sitting face-to-face with your team
members but there is a flip side to this perspective that may be left untrodden. Despite the
technological developments, bigger organizations believe that working face-to-face facilitates
and pushes you to achieve your ultimate goals. What if in-person teamwork was supremely
crucial for your holistic well-being? If you wish to find out how—read on!
Chance to build strong workplace relationships
Building stronger and meaningful relationships at work are directly linked to long-term
business progress. The WFH culture wired our minds to associate an individual simply with a
voice on a conference call and not a face that we could talk to or connect with on coffee
breaks. It is self-explanatory that spending time with someone face-to-face leads to a
formation of a strong team where ‘comfort’ plays a strong role in making professional
collaborations smoother in future. Not only does it help us assess our personality and
behaviour, but it also creates a conducive environment to decode various styles of
communicating and presenting ourselves pleasantly to minimize team conflict. Hence, when
you meet a client or a senior with an established relationship, it will furthermore add a sense
of humanness by building trust to form deeper connections.
Significant increase in morale & motivation
While working from home, it is usual to feel bored or disconnected from your work and your
team members. As a result, you work at your own pace as per the deadlines which are rather
inconsistent and unproductive in the long run. This missing motivation is a common problem
that most of us experience while working in isolation. But when a group of 5-10 members
comes together in a workspace, an employee is bound to feel motivated enough to work
either by looking at others’ abilities and zeal or by wanting to perform just as good. When we
lack the self-motivation to perform our hygiene tasks, working in a group gives you the
much-desired push to go the extra mile and perform extraordinarily well. With an overall boost
in our morale and motivation, an employee is bound to avoid the smallest of demotivators in
order to yield the best results.
Gain recognition and respect in your workplace
While there is a certain degree of authority, respect and recognition you can achieve while
working from home, nothing beats an in-person impression. When employees come together
at a workspace to share ongoing performance trends or accomplishments, one is
automatically drawn to the other’s attention. By being physically present with everyone else,
one paves a way for everyone else to identify and notice how his/her everyday contribution is
adding value to the bigger picture. This is also a great way to demonstrate how a simple
piece of work is contributing to another employee’s successes and vice versa. Therefore by
getting a deeper insight into how each member’s contribution can lead to individual and
collective success, the job doesn’t feel like a burden but leads to improved teamwork &
productivity.
Set great impressions through micro-behaviour
Sometimes we tend to fail at effectively communicating what we intend to. Heaven forbid, it is
a piece of important information that gets misconstrued. Situations have been observed to go
into a domino effect and it all comes down to accountability. What we miss out on are the
facial expressions, gestures, body language or visual aids from the whiteboard. An individual
with his/her confidence can create a strongly engaging environment, open up and share their
ideas freely. There is no doubt that face-to-face interactions are the strongest means of
setting great impressions. For instance, if the mood of the room feels rather bored, then you
can gauge the non-verbal cues such as someone yawning or looking away and immediately
pick an exciting topic or modulate your tone to catch their attention.
Leads to improved physical and mental health
Bigger organizations are now moving towards co-working spaces like Buzzworks to introduce
dedicated conference rooms and well-designed spaces to bring office teams together. These
workspaces are specially designed to create an ecosystem of work and play. The more
people, the higher the chance of indulging in mental and physical activities that charge your
brain cells. The feel-good hormones can be easily given a boost with activities as simple as
going for a walk post-lunch with a colleague or playing darts for a fun Friday-noon match.
When your brain gets involved in physical activities, it releases happy hormones to keep your
mental health in check as well. Sometimes, teams collectively decide to take a half-day off
and go to some place nice for a lunch! There is no doubt that human beings are social
creatures that benefit largely from working face-to-face.
You also get to have some fun while you are at it!
Most people view workspace teams from a tinted lens. They are associated with work,
deadlines, conflicts and everything that’s negative. Google’s SVP of People Operations Laszlo
Bock stated that people spend more time working than doing anything else and yet want to
make the time seem meaningful. Individuals fail to understand that merely working for passion
isn’t going to take you anywhere. Carving out time from busy schedules and bonding with
colleagues to do something fun. Even if your workspace has everything to keep you engaged,
it is important to step out every now and then to smell the coffee and feel alive.
When meeting spaces are tailored to employee needs, the overall degree of productivity is
bound to shoot up. Conference rooms with specialised designs and highly enabled
technology offer safe and trendy work environments for meetings, sessions, off-sites or simply
have fun with a team-building experience. Access to superior interiors with lighting,
ventilation, multi-purpose work zones and access to shared amenities is sure to make any
team fall in love with the idea of in-person team meetings.
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