‘Happiness Crews’ And ‘Culture Committees’ Are Making Isolated Workers Feel Less Lonely

When the CEO of Hyr heard one of his workers had slept badly before a big meeting because of her bedding, he ordered a set of feather-filled pillows and had them sent to her home. And, when a shift worker took a job at an outdoor market for the holidays, a member of Hyr’s floating community team showed up with an extra warm jacket for her to wear. 

The company connects short-staffed businesses with a community of 20,000 gig workers that have experience in hospitality, retail or as brand ambassadors. Because those workers are spread out across 21 U.S. cities, Hyr has an equally well-distributed community team to make sure they feel supported.

Hyr’s not the only business bringing joy to distributed workforces. New York-based FitSmallBusiness, a resource site for small businesses, has a “culture committee” dedicated to creating and facilitating engagement events and employs a “people experience specialist,” a role filled by Tsion McNichols.

McNichols says: “We hold events at times that are comfortable for our people in different time zones and encourage them to dial in through video conferencing. We play games that translate well over video calls like spelling bees, Pictionary, and bingo to allow for participation by remote workers. We also hold a company-wide weekly meeting on Fridays where everyone joins on video, followed by a social hour for people to get to know each other.”

The company also sends personalized gifts on birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays–a job that is automated through a site called Snappy–and remote teams get flown to New York City for two days per quarter to attend company events and meetings so employees can collaborate on projects, teach and learn new skills, socialize and generally get to know each other.

This is a thoroughly modern solution to a workforce that is becoming increasingly dispersed. According to Buffer’s 2019 State of Remote Work report, 99% of those working remotely want to continue doing so, yet almost a fifth (19%) struggle with loneliness.

Make no mistake, increasing worker engagement is not undiluted altruism. According to Gallup, work units scoring in the top quartile of employee engagement have 22% higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile. In short, being a good business is just good business.

As Hyr COO and co-founder Erika Mozes explains: “If we don’t have great workers, businesses will not use our service. That is why having a culture that is focused on our workers is so important to us.” 

Video communications platform Zoom deploys a 100-strong “happiness crew,” formed of volunteers from within its business, to bring together 2,000 employees spread across eight countries. The crew hosts digital social events, celebrates employees and introduces distributed departments and offices to one another on a regular basis, with face-to-face video chats and themed meetings.

Zoom says its staff turnover rate is 3% and it’s currently ranked second in Glassdoor’s ‘Best U.S. Large Workplaces.’ Founder and CEO Eric Yuan says: “Numerous studies show that people derive more personal satisfaction and are more productive when they engage at a deeper level. In the past, we did that through live, in-person interactions, but it’s more of a challenge for distributed workforces to maintain that level of engagement.

“Distributed workforces are most likely to succeed if their culture is one that values and prioritizes face-to-face communications. This does not mean that interactions between offices and departments are forced, but rather encouraged and enabled through regularly-scheduled video meetings, planned social and other fun events, company-wide meetings and so on.” 

Yuan is keen to emphasize that Zoom’s happiness crew is just one part of what the business does to keep employees feeling connected, and adds: “Zoom does not focus on revenue goals, but rather we have confidence that focusing on the happiness of existing customers and our employees will organically increase growth.”