February 7th-13th 2022 sees Children’s Mental Health Week take place, an annual week which encourages children, young people and adults to look after their bodies and minds.
Read Naomi O'Rourke's article exploring the challenges young professionals face to their menal wellbeing, particularly at the point of qualification, and ways employers can help.
Naomi is a Soliciotr at Potter Rees Dolan and sits on the MLS Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Committee.
Date: 17 March 2022 Time: 12:30 - 19:00 Location: Squire Patton Boggs, 1 Hardman St, Manchester M3 3EB Cost to attend: MLS Members £45.00 + VAT (£54.00) Non-Members £60.00 + VAT (£72.00)
£10.00 from each ticket sold will be donated to NSPCC Manchester Childline
Here’s some practical tips to help you stay connected with your colleagues as hybrid working becomes the norm. We’ve also included some specific ways that the Weekly10 app in Microsoft Teams can help you too.
Use office time for collaboration
The office is a place for collaboration and connection. Have a set day each week to go into the office to do team-based work. Leave calls and deep work at home. Schedule in-office time for cross-team collaboration too so you’re not working in an echo chamber: All paralegals come into the office on a Wednesday. Partners on a Tuesday. You get the idea.
Regular feedback keeps your team engaged
It’s tough for managers to stay up to date with their team. Use Weekly10 for regular employee check-ins. It keeps track of their success and challenges and is a safe space to ask for help. Use those check-ins to give supportive feedback and guidance. If you don’t have Weekly10, you can run this over email too.
Prioritise 1:1 time with your team
Employee check-ins help you iron out day-to-day challenges so that your 1:1 meetings are more future-focused. Use check-in feedback to stimulate meeting talking points. And watch out for engagement or wellbeing flags like changes to the tone or frequency of your team’s check-ins.
Overcommunicate successes
We miss cross-desk conversations working from home so it’s important to overcommunicate. Connect your Weekly10 check-in recognition question responses to a group-wide Microsoft Teams channel to share successes or gratitude regularly. It’ll increase your employees’ sense of belonging and show them that their work is valued.
Schedule organised fun
Unless you schedule time to socialise with your colleagues, it won’t happen. Set a fortnightly social event – a quiz, a murder mystery, anything! Yes, it’ll be forced fun to start with, but it’ll become less awkward as you embrace it.