In celebration of Random Acts of Kindness Day, we thought it was the perfect time to deep dive into how we can create a great company culture. Exploring how kindness can be a fundamental part of nurturing a positive, connected and productive workplace environment.
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation has outlined the seven key ingredients that make for a positive and kind working culture:
- Setting the Tone
- Modeling Behaviour
- Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment
- Strengths, Mistakes and Growth Mindset
- Trust, Boundaries and Belonging
- Communication and Collaboration
- Celebration
Plus, we share how The Bot Platform has bespoke solutions to help you bring more kindness and positivity into your business.
Setting the Tone
Gratitude is an easy and powerful way to set a tone. A great way that The Bot Platform can help encourage gratitude in your workplace is helping you to launch an Employee Recognition Program. Deloitte found that employee productivity and performance are 14% higher in organisations with recognition programs than in those without them.
Peer-to-peer recognition encourages employees to make deeper, personal connections with their team members and to thank them for their contributions. Why not build a bot that allows staff to share personalised thank you notes with their colleagues?
Modelling Behaviour
When we show respect and care for our employees and teammates, it nurtures a culture of kindness and return of sentiment.
One way of keeping in touch with your team’s mental wellness is to simply check in on how they’re doing. Using The Bot Platform, UK customer support company, Moneypenny, launched a ‘How are you doing’ survey bot and within 24 hours over 75% of staff had answered the survey.
And while bots shouldn’t be viewed as a replacement for broader internal initiatives that help promote healthy habits, they absolutely can be used to promote these programs and increase awareness and participation from staff.
For example, you could set up a Meditation Bot that gives employees a guided 10 minute meditation each day, offer tips for work/life balance or to even just promote positive thinking.
Consider creating rules about fixed lunch times where staff must step away from their screens and take a break. A great example is Clarins UK who built Lunch Time Chime, which encourages staff to clock off at 1pm to have a proper lunch break and recharge physically, mentally and emotionally.
Creating a Safe and Supportive Environment
Make space for open discussions. In order to promote a safe and positive environment for the whole team, develop a system where everyone gets the chance to voice their ideas and opinions.
Our Anonymous Bots give all employees a voice, removing any fear of ‘speaking up’. Why not set-up an anonymous whistleblowing bot? Or facilitate Leadership Q&A’s where an employee is free to ask questions completely anonymously? Or even a virtual suggestions box?
According to Hive, organisation responsiveness to employee feedback leads to higher retention rates, lower absenteeism, improved productivity, better customer service and higher employee morale.
The simple fact that employers are providing a platform to receive feedback sends a positive message to employees that their opinions are valued and can be voiced in a safe and supportive environment.
Strengths, Mistakes and Growth Mindset
According to HR News, one of the biggest incentives that attracts an employee is the opportunity to acquire new skills in order to grow in their career. Investing in employee learning and development encourages individuals to nurture their strengths and encourages a growth mindset.
Using bots on Workplace or Microsoft Teams, it’s possible to create engaging digital learning experiences that are mobile, on-demand and personalised for each staff member.
UK based restaurant chain, Honest Burgers, used The Bot Platform in this way to create Honest College – a Bot with bite-sized training modules covering areas directly related to their roles and responsibilities, plus personal development in areas like money management or physical wellness. This led to 150 waiters upskilling to become Chefs and a 100% completion rate on compliance training.
Trust, Boundaries and Belonging
When it comes to workplace culture, trust and a feeling of belonging are crucial. Create a sense of togetherness and belonging by cultivating bonding. Helping staff to network and socialise can boost morale and improve mental health. In many industries, the ‘water cooler’ moments and side chats on the shop floor have been lost and replaced with more formal video meetings.
Bots can help bring back some of the spontaneity and innovation that often come from these in-person catch ups. For example, you can create a Buddy Bot that improves internal networking and collaboration opportunities by matching up different staff members and encouraging them to jump on a video call for a coffee and a catch up.
In this scenario, bots can actually help to connect staff and create a sense of community regardless of location, by helping to promote bonding and culture in a spontaneous way.
Communication and Collaboration
Productive teams are built on collaboration and positive communication and evidence shows that helping others can benefit our own mental health and wellbeing. And what better act of kindness could there be than helping others? Why not launch a bot that encourages your workforce to come together to do good deeds and help their community?
For example, you could create a bot which encourages staff to create weekly good deeds and promote acts of kindness. Staff could sign up for the program and receive weekly broadcasts with different challenges. They can then select different types of good deeds to pick from or suggest different acts of kindness of their own. These challenges can help to boost collaboration, morale and community, because so many people are working together to try to make a positive impact and pay it forward.
Philanthropic activity is a great use case for bots in general. One of our customers, Moneypenny, used a bot to generate gift donations for underprivileged children at Christmas and raised thousands of pounds for charity.
Celebration
According to NBC News, 65% of Americans claim that they were not recognised by their company at all in a one year period and Harvard Business Review reports that 72% of businesses agree that recognition impacts engagement positively. It comes back to gratitude, appreciation and recognition.
There are a variety of ways bots can be used to make staff feel valued and create a culture of peer recognition. For example, companies like Citizens Advice have created a staff awards program where people can nominate their colleagues for specific awards and Globe Telecom relaunched their recognition program during the pandemic by using bots on Workplace, which resulted in a 900% increase in nominations year on year and a happier and more engaged workforce.
There are so many ways we can show kindness in the workplace, which can endure long after the National Day of Random Acts of Kindness and would help to improve the working culture for all of us.
If you’re interested in any of the Bots discussed above to help nurture your employee experience and spread some kindness, get in touch with us today!
