How to prevent employees feeling isolated

One of the many common ailments of the modern age, affecting people both at work and outside it, is a feeling of isolation. This may occur, say, if an individual does not fit well into a group or for some reason dislikes interacting on a deeper level with colleagues. This can lead to a sense of loneliness and consequently a worse performance at work. One of the main tasks of an HR specialist is to make every employee feel part of one team with common goals. Therefore we offer some advice on how to prevent individual employees from feeling “ousted”.

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Personal meetings

According to HR Morning, modern technologies often add to the feeling of isolation, primarily through their depersonalised communication. If management communicates with employees primarily via e-mail or some other internal communication medium, or employees themselves even communicate this way, it is no surprise that relations between employees are not the best. Deal with employees personally and promote a policy within the company of solving issues face to face.

Remote workers are welcome

People who are contractors or work remotely and spend most of their time outside the office must also be included in the team. Ideally, you should organise weekly team meetings, which will also be attended by people working remotely who do not participate in everyday meetings.

Team building

One excellent way to unite employees and help them create relationships that are more personal and not purely professional is hosting team building events. These need not be expensive weekends in hotels. They might be sports events in the afternoon, escape games or an occasional get-together once a week.

Public praise

For people not to feel overlooked you must praise them publicly. The important word here is "publicly": praise from a manager is still pleasant even if said face to face; however, it is nothing compared to being praised publicly in front of all the team members and thanked for helping to achieve the common goal of the whole group.

 

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Article source HR Morning - American portal for HR managers
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