During the pandemic, many teams and individuals began exchanging articles within their internal communication channels with tips for more efficient work from home, leisure activities, webinars and books ... This form of activity significantly increases personal involvement among team members who are in isolation, helping to maintain contact and a sense of "normalcy" in this otherwise strange time.
The current situation plays a role in what we read and discuss, which helps us mentally process the crisis while finding creative ways to support our work or the business itself.
In fact, corporate book/reader clubs are nothing new. As early as the 1940s and 1950s, similar associations were established by General Electric's head of employment relations, Lemuel Boulware, who encouraged employees to hold reading meetings in their homes.
Amongst other things, the list of GE books included Lewis Henry Haneyes' publication: How You Really Make a Living: Every Man's Guide to the American Economy and More. Of course, the choice of topics was debatable; however, these meetings resulted in a strengthening of GE's corporate values to employees and better engagement. At the same time, they also helped involve employees outside the work environment.
Corporate reading clubs can further help signal to employees and the environment how a company wants to act as an employer or partner.
Try to implement a similar initiative in your company and, for example, in a virtual space, to help employees better balance their work and personal needs and give them more meaning in their work at the company. At the present time, they really need it.
-bb-