Studies have shown that the most productive teams are rated highly for trust and camaraderie. A good team spirit has consistently been one of the most important factors in job satisfaction, while a poor atmosphere is one of the key considerations when an employee decides to leave. So, trust and positive morale must be a consideration for any employer or manager.
If you’re concerned about the atmosphere in your team or you just want to ensure that team spirit remains high, our list of 10 camaraderie-building tips is for you.
What is camaraderie?
Camaraderie is defined as mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. It comes from the French word ‘camarade’, meaning ‘friend’ or ‘associate’.
In any workplace, whether the business is entirely remote, in-person or hybrid, co-workers will naturally spend much of their time together. When these people get along well and can communicate clearly and effectively, this usually means that you’ve fostered good camaraderie.
Why is camaraderie important?
Camaraderie in the workplace might not be something you would consider as important, but the number of benefits might surprise you. One of the main advantages is that it can significantly boost employee well-being. Positive relationships within the workplace can keep stress levels lower, provide a network of emotional support and create a community within the workforce. It can also, in turn, increase team productivity since staff will feel more motivated.
Ultimately, this can have a huge impact on your workplace culture and be a significant factor in employee satisfaction and retention. In other words, the better the relationships between colleagues, the more you’re setting yourself up for success.
How to encourage better camaraderie at work
Now that you know what it is and how important it can be to foster this within your workplace, we’re sharing our top tips for encouraging this positive change.
Review your hiring process
The first step in fostering a great team spirit begins with an efficient and helpful hiring process. If you have three members from the HR department in the interview and not a single member of the potential employee’s team, then it’s going to be difficult to assess how well they’ll fit in. Yes, you want to know that the potential employee can do the job, but you need to know that they’ll mesh with the existing team, too. As well as the employee’s line manager, consider including another member of their team in the process.
Before you even begin advertising a new role, you should also be confident in the role specification. This will ensure you ask the right questions when it comes to screening and interviewing potential candidates to find out whether they could fulfil the role. All new candidates should be asked questions that help you get to know them better outside of their professional lives since this gives you a good indication of how they might fit into the team.
Refining your hiring process helps foster a good team balance and ensures any new hires are a great cultural fit for the team and wider business.
Create an onboarding process
When a new hire is joining the business, you want to make sure they know where they stand from day one with a comprehensive onboarding process. This should include introductions to colleagues, a tour of the office, an overview of policies and benefits, and anything else that’s useful for them to know. Investing in new employees from day one shows them that you value their time and can help them settle in better.
Clarify roles and hierarchy
Knowing exactly where everybody stands in the personnel hierarchy can be helpful to people at all levels of the business. It’s useful to know when you can push back on decisions and who the ultimate decision-making process sits with. Of course, it’s great to foster an inclusive environment where all team members’ opinions are heard but knowing who has the final say prevents staff from feeling overruled or ignored.
Encourage open communication
Being a good communicator boils down to one key element: listening. By listening and acknowledging your team members, you show them respect and thereby build trust. A few words of praise or encouragement go a long way, too. If open communication is encouraged throughout the team and across different departments, staff are likely to feel that their ideas and opinions are being listened to and that they’re valued as individuals. This can give them the confidence to speak up and foster a culture of receptivity.
This is especially relevant for remote employees. Be sure to schedule regular communications with remote workers and consider using remote working tools such as Slack, Asana and Google Drive so workers can connect and collaborate in real-time wherever in the world they are.
Give everyone equal opportunity to be involved
How do work meetings usually go for you? Are there a handful of speakers and many more who stay quiet? Do you present to the team and then allocate five minutes for AOB at the end? If so, then you may unintentionally be harming the morale of some of your team members. Being heard, literally, is key to how your employees feel about their position. They may choose to stay quiet in meetings without realising that this is affecting their confidence and feelings of inclusion.
This is just as important outside of meetings. Investing in each of your team members and giving them plenty of chances to contribute ideas, suggestions or opinions in whatever method they prefer can make sure every voice is heard equally.
Encourage social events
Plan a team get-together that takes place outside of the office. This provides a great opportunity for team members to get to know each other, ultimately fostering better relationships on a professional and personal level.
Go for something that’s low-pressure, like a trip to an outdoor adventure park, bowling or a painting session. When you’re trying to come up with the right event, it can help to send out a poll or ask for suggestions from the team. Make sure it’s relaxed, informal and appeals to a wider group of people. Choosing something that’s niche could alienate some colleagues and negatively impact the team.
Set and manage goals
It’s a good idea to ensure all employees are up-to-date with company goals as soon as possible. Aim to feature company missions and objectives in the onboarding process so staff know what’s required from day one. Uphold these values by including regular updates in weekly meetings.
Once objectives are firmly established, you can move on to inter-department goals and individual targets. Having a clear idea of these will help teams to stay motivated and committed.
It’s equally as important to show that you value the individual goals of your team members. Managers should invest time in learning about their goals and ambitions since this can ensure everyone is working together to better the team’s performance.
Beware of micromanaging
Few things can negatively affect the morale of a team like lack of trust from a manager, and if you’re prone to micromanaging, then this is exactly the message you’re giving to your employees. Do you really need staff to give you a daily update of what they’re working on? And do you really need to proofread every email that goes out? If the answer to these questions is yes, then you may need to go back to point one…
Allow for a diverse way of working
Ironically, forcing a team to be together for set 9-5 hours Monday-Friday could do more harm than good in terms of communication. Instead, it can be better to allow for different ways of working that better support your team collectively and as individuals.
Offering options such as flexible or remote working, alongside creating dedicated quiet workspaces and breakout areas, shows your team that you’re considering their different personality types, preferred ways of working and ideal work-life balance.
Starting the conversation about diverging from the most traditional ways of working could do wonders for your team’s camaraderie.
Celebrate your achievements
Make sure that when the team wins, everyone is encouraged to celebrate. Not only can this boost morale, but it can also increase engagement and ensure every member of the team feels valued. Whether you hit your sales targets or landed a new client deal, bringing everyone together to recognise the achievement is a great way to promote a teamwork approach that leads to success.
Building a sense of community in your workforce won’t happen overnight. Staff need to feel connected to their team and for this, communication is key. Take the time to connect, listen to and make yourself available to your employees. Foster an open, supportive atmosphere and the rest should come easily.
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