Your intuition tells you it’s true: an organization that creates a positive environment and builds a strong community for its people delivers better results and is more successful. Creating that sense of camaraderie flows into daily activities: communication is easier, it provides meaning to the daily grind, people feel empowered to take on challenges and be more creative.
You don’t need to invest a fortune to build a community in your organization, but to be successful, you do need to create opportunities for your people to form those resilience-fortifying bonds with each other. Having a dedicated person (like a wellness programmer) to take the helm and provide opportunities for engagement is a catalyst for building a strong community.
Does your wellness platform have the necessary tools for building a sense of community? Here are 5 practical ways a wellness programmer with a solid platform can get the job done.
Recognition
Saying “well-done” or “thank you” are very powerful motivators. A sense of belonging and appreciation is a great foundation for building a community. To be successful, recognize and reward your employees often. The best way to do this is to create an environment where recognition can come from anyone. Social feeds that let users brag about accomplishments should also offer the option for other users to reply with a “nice job!”
In our software, we call these “kudos”, and they are extremely effective. Make recognition a part of your company culture by sending someone a kudo right now. Hopefully, they will pay it forward and get the ball rolling for others to join the recognition band wagon!
Social Events
An obvious way to create a community is to organize events outside of the daily norm that enable your people to get to know one another on a personal level. Regular social events help create bonds and boost morale. Consider giving the activity a wellbeing theme by incorporating movement. For instance, if you have the resources, organize a recreation sports team or a regular walking group.
It could also be as simple as a regular day that everyone comes to the office versus working from home. If COVID is still a concern in your area, set up Zoom lunches where everyone can log on with their food of choice and simply hang out for a bit to catch up.
Now that the weather is more enjoyable, our company has regular outdoor staff meetings at the park. Small groups meetup beforehand for short walking meetings, then we break for lunch and hangout; afterward, we meet as an entire group. It’s always great to see faces and engage in small talk! Use your platform to send out announcements and emails reminding everyone when to show up . . . and to bring their sunscreen and hats.
Another thing to consider, the more unexpected the activity, the better – it leads to good stories and shared laughs later that reinforce those bonds. Anyone up for an axe-throwing event?
Pro tip: whatever you do, take pictures, and share them (with your participant’s permission) on the social feed, company intranet, or social media to give them props (kudos) for showing up!
Volunteering
Social events do create bonds and boost morale – now consider doubling down on that activity by creating events centered around volunteering. Volunteering events promote the causes your people care about and encourages them to give back to their larger community. If you have a large millennial population, this is especially important. As a generation, they tend to be passionate about causes that benefit the greater good and create awareness around a cause.
Sponsor an event as a company, block work time for everyone to participate, or allow your people to log volunteer hours for causes they care about. If you are going to do a company sponsored activity, consider beginning with a survey and ask your people straight up: what organizations do you care about? Find something everyone can get behind and watch the team spirit and camaraderie increase.
Competition
Friendly competition builds team cohesiveness. Studies show that behaviors with little functional purpose, like dancing and marching, aka coordinated physical activities, act to bond the people involved in those activities.1 Why not promote a team challenge to show your people that you are committed to their health while also reinforcing a sense of community?
Participating in a team challenge allows your people to interact with their co-workers without the pressure of the job. Instead of being just a worker bee in the next cube, that person becomes Julie, who loves dogs and is also a body builder that hates cardio. Personalities come out, character is revealed, and now your people see their colleagues as real people - friends even - versus someone they happen to work with.
Walking is a great activity for any health promotion program. There is a low barrier to entry and the benefits are innumerable. This makes a step challenge and easy choice. For more insight on incorporating walking into your wellness program, check out our other blog post, Walking Your Way to a Better Health Promotion Program.
Be forewarned: we have witnessed challenge incentive structures that turn “friendly competition” into all-out ruthless brawls for domination. Turns out this isn’t very inclusive, nor fun for everyone. If you are incenting participation, consider creating a raffle for everyone that participates, versus only offering a prize to the top team. You want people to move more and stress less, not set their alarms at 4 AM so they can get 20K steps in before breakfast because They. Must. Win. A random winner is selected, everyone has fun, and the top team still gets bragging rights. ;)
Pro Communication Tip: “catch” your people participating in the challenge and post photos in your platform’s social feed – it creates further opportunity for getting (and giving) more kudos to boost that recognition piece!
Common Goals
Studies also indicate that sharing a common goal is associated with the formation of social bonds.2 A population goal campaign is a great way to bring everyone, across all departments, together to reach a singular goal. The best part: this community builder can expand and tie in with all the other community building methods already mentioned.
First, choose a common goal. Again, because we are going for wellness here, it could be a physical activity like reaching 1 million steps or logging 1,000 hours of exercise minutes. It needs to be big and audacious, but within reach. Tie it into volunteering by offering up a donation from the company to the cause your survey respondents indicated was important to them.
Next, configure the status graphic to display front and center on your platform so everyone can see the status of the goal. Send out news and announcements letting everyone know what they are working for and why.
Now tie the other methods for building community:
Creating a sense of community in your organization takes some effort. It will not just magically happen. With some planning and thought, you can leverage programs that will bond your people, boost camaraderie, and create a strong, successful, resilient community.
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1 Music and social bonding: “self-other” merging and neurohormonal mechanisms.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25324805/
2 Understanding and sharing intentions: the origins of cultural cognition