Culture & Wellbeing

Alyssa Jaffer - Writer and Strategist focusing on wellbeing and social connection

Alyssa is a writer and strategist focusing on wellbeing and social connection. She writes for Forbes and explores how trust, relationships and everyday interactions shape engagement and satisfaction within the workplace. She also works in tech communications for brands like Google and Deliveroo.

Q: What are the key ways that organizations can create stronger social bonds in distributed teams?

Having opportunities to build social connections is important. Different people socialise differently, however, we’re all inherently social beings and seeking connection. Organisations can find ways to bring teams together, in person or virtually, both during work time and occasionally after hours to cultivate connection through social and team building activities, lunch and learns, workshops, offsites, sports day, etc.

Q: How should HR and L&D leaders start elevating “happiness” into a culture strategy?

For this to work, commitment from the senior-most leaders is crucial. Happiness is hard to quantify but when work takes up so much of our life, it’s a key driver for happiness or unhappiness. The key is to build work environments where people feel connected to their organisation's purpose, they feel their work is contributing towards that purpose and that their work is important. It’s also imperative for managers and leaders to model healthy behaviours, have no tolerance for toxic work patterns and reward and recognise their employees well, at every level.

Q: At a time when loneliness is pervasive and connections can feel superficial, how do you think companies can build stronger, more genuine connections at work?

By making it a priority and putting funding and performance expectations towards it, with tactics like building genuine connections between colleagues and setting aside time where people can be themselves, and be together.

Q: Many workplaces are fixated on technology, systems and data for managing people. Based on your writing, where do you think firms are missing the mark when it comes to human productivity at work?

The ‘why’ is often missing. Workplaces want more productivity from employees, for better shareholder value, cost savings or business performance - but what is the incentive for the employee? There’s an upper limit to how productive you can be without sacrificing quality - but before that ceiling is reached,it’s more likely that burnout, disillusionment or lack of motivation will set in. Instead, workplaces should incentivise employees to be more productive - give them a stake or equity in the business, rewards for meeting targets and adequate training and support to upskill using new tools and tech like AI.

Q: What role does creative freedom, meaningful human interaction and organisational support play in helping employees feel happy, connected and motivated at work?

A big role. People are creative by nature, but in a work context, creativity can only be nurtured without restrictions on when/where/how someone works. Working with your hands, engaging in art, slowing down are all ways to be creative and switch on your left brain to trigger ideas and innovation - but they're not always compatible with office work. If organisations can loosen the rules on what ‘work’ has to look like, there’s a lot of potential for brilliance.

Q: What storytelling mistakes do companies make when trying to communicate culture or change? When you look at the future of work, how important is it for employers to create “stories” (shared purpose, visual narratives, rituals) rather than just policies and perks?

Slapping values on the wall and expecting that to do anything - it won’t work. Humans connect to and relate to stories, so storytelling is a powerful tool. People can rally around why a company was founded, how the product helps its customers, why an employee chooses to work there, etc. It’s part of what builds a company’s culture but if the company’s values aren’t lived or are in conflict with an employee’s personal values, disengagement happens. It’s important for workplaces to cultivate culture through what motivates the people. No matter how much automation, AI or tech we build, commerce is always about people – and people aren’t machines, that’s what makes us human. So corporate storytelling is a good narrative tool to rally employees around a shared purpose, so long as it’s authentic.

Q: For our readership (HR, L&D, senior leaders): if you could give them one practical exercise or intervention this year to boost happiness through social connection in their teams, what would it be and why?

Set aside a day or an afternoon dedicated to social connection within teams. Do it during work time, organise an activity and fund it for teams to get together to work through a challenge like an escape room or puzzle game, or a physical activity or sport, and provide some loose structure like setting up teams or some thought starter questions. People will do the rest!

Q: If you could give our readers one story-based exercise to apply within their team culture this quarter, what would it be and why?

Have the company leadership articulate and then write down why their employees would want to work at their organisation, and stress test it by asking employees whether they’re motivated by that reason. Workshop it until you get to a story that can drive the employer value proposition.