Easy ways to connect people

Tips for connecting people across your workplace who don't normally interact.

OBJECTIVES

Why is this important?

• This supports our Connect Pillar of wellbeing

• It creates opportunities for people to collaborate with other teams

• Connecting people with those outside of their regular work group helps them to understand different areas of the organisation

• It also gives people the chance to expand their knowledge and learn from people from different backgrounds, as well as build a sense of camaraderie

• Connecting people is reflected in questions in our Workplace Temperature Check, and may result in improvements in:

  • ‘People’s differences are accepted and valued’

  • ‘Employees are given time for wellbeing in the workday’

HOW TO GET STARTED

Ways to connect people

1. Brainstorm and agree on ‘how’ to do this within your workplace. We of course encourage you to gain perspectives and ideas from as many people as you can. Things to consider include:

   1. Is it virtual (such as video calls), physical (in-office or on-site) or both?

   2. Will they be one-to-one meetings, small group meetings or a mix of both?

   3. Are you going to facilitate some activities or leave it to participants to decide?

   4. How will connections be made (e.g. random name allocation)?

   5. How often are connections to take place (weekly, monthly)?

   6. How long are the ‘connection’ sessions for?

2. Create a communication strategy to inform the leaders on the ‘what, why and how’ to ensure you have their buy-in

3. Create a communication strategy to inform all remaining staff on the ‘what, why and how’

4. Ask people if they would like to be included

   1. Optional but suggested extra activity here: request feedback from those who don't want to be included so as to address potential barriers in the future

5. Review and amend the above considerations (in step 1) after 3 months, and ideally on a 6 monthly basis thereafter.