
While Rand Worldwide has an official
employee recognition plan that honours
employees for length of service and re-wards
them for outstanding performance,
on a less formal basis, we ask staff for
“shout outs” for the newsletter. Shout-outs
give people a chance to thank each other
publicly. They also demonstrate apprecia-tion
for excellence, diligence, kindness and
many other qualities that we value.
The heavy emphasis on people sto-ries
and photos serves to make staff feel
more connected. At Rand Worldwide,
we are continually forming project-based
teams; members on any given team might
have met each other in person – or not.
The newsletter shows what different staff
members look like and can provide a start-ing
point for conversation between two
remote colleagues. This way, while two
employees may not have met in person,
they’re able to potentially know the oth-er
person’s face and a few key facts about
their team member.
HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Rand Worldwide takes a long-term view
regarding our health and wellness initia-tives,
and uses those initiatives as another
opportunity to help employees feel con-nected
to one another. The interesting
thing about focusing on health and well-ness
is that it also fosters community, as
many programs also instigate teamwork
and good-natured competition. The com-pany
has a standing group of five people
who serve on the morale and wellness
team. As a virtual team, they come up with
ideas for new ways to promote health and
fitness – as well as corporate camaraderie.
Programs that have been successfully
implemented:
Fitbit 10,000 steps challenge
The morale and wellness team started a
walking program based around the wear-able
Fitbit activity tracker, which turned out
to be a very successful means to encourage
staff members to interact with each oth-er.
The company offered all employees and
their partners the opportunity to purchase
a Fitbit tracker for half-price. Employees
paid half through payroll deduction, and
Rand Worldwide paid the balance. Over
200 people at the company have consistent-ly
participated in the program.
In 2013, during the challenge, partic-ipants
collectively walked 26,981,820
steps, equaling 12,432 miles. We burned
1,498,492 calories. The morale and
wellness team created a website with a
leaderboard, active minutes, distance
and steps over time. The stats allowed
people to see who is most active and mo-tivated
others to get going. Several offices
started a lunchtime walking group, and
walkers enjoyed getting to know their co-workers
in a less formal setting. As typical
of most challenge settings, there was plen-ty
of friendly banter between colleagues.
Participants were able to write comments
on the challenge website, and the com-ments
were almost more fun to follow
than the actual steps.
Weight loss challenge
After the success of the 10,000 steps
challenge, we held a weight loss chal-lenge
across office locations. Some teams
were virtual, others location-based. From
March 1 to June 30, participants includ-ed
on the winning team lost 12.39 per
cent of their combined body weight. The
winning individual lost 18 per cent. The
weight loss challenge was an opportuni-ty
for staff members to really support one
another in their goals outside of the work
setting; people were able to build relation-ships
and truly rely on the encouragement
of their team members from across many
of Rand Worldwide’s locations.
CONNECTING YOUR
WORKFORCE
Recognize that there are almost endless
opportunities to create camaraderie across
distance. HR can put together a team to
focus on your own organization’s morale
and wellness, and ask them to gener-ate
ideas for new programs. Let the team
know that their ideas will be supported
and the goal is to ensure connectivity and
camaraderie between office locations.
When your workforce feels connected
to one another, a corporate culture of help-ing
each other out can really take off. ■
Carole Trask is vice president, Human
Resources at Rand Worldwide.
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RECOGNIZE THAT THERE ARE ALMOST
ENDLESS OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE
CAMARADERIE ACROSS DISTANCE.
30 ❚ SEPTEMBER 2014 ❚ HR PROFESSIONAL