Creativity cultivates productivity. It is important for building and maintaining employee engagement and employee satisfaction.
Introducing and maintaining creativity in a virtual workspace can be challenging. But creativity does not need to suffer when employees go virtual. Done right, it can even upgrade.
Here are top 6 ways in which HRs can promote creativity in the organization:
1. Make the e-mails more interesting
For an HR, e-mails are the main mode of communication with the employees. From informing about the important events, policies and even for employee engagement, HR must send multiple emails on day-to-day basis. One way to promote creativity in the organization is to make these emails more creative. ‘FYI’ mails can be boring and overlooked by the employees. Information is only absorbed when it is concise. As an HR the main goal should be conveying the information in the most interesting way possible. For this, HRs can make use of relatable memes, jingles, pictures, dialogues etc. This is one way you can enhance the employee experience and your organization can stand out in terms of creativity.
The two examples given below shows the comparison between the two mails delivering the same message.
Sample 1
Given below is the different version of the same message.
Sample 2
2. Introduce Creativity in Employee Engagement activities/games
Conducting Engagement activities in a virtual workspace can be challenging. HRs cannot force the employees to actively participate. But they can surely attract the employees towards these activities by adding value with their creativity.
It is noticed that employees do not give much importance to the virtual games & activities that are conducted by the HR and skip the same. Usually, the purpose behind conducting these activities is to introduce some fun so that employees feel relaxed and refreshing. Introducing ‘Just Fun’ activities/games is good but why not keep the motto behind these games as ‘Fun Learning,’ something other than work, which is fun and has a hint of learning in it. Give this activity some interesting name. For example- KBC (Kon Banega Champion). Under this activity, conduct games that contribute to the growth of the employees. Try to create a healthy competition and reward those who win.
For Example- Games like Ad Mad Show, Marketing Tambola, Negotiations, Debates can be a fun way of developing interpersonal skills of the employees.
3. Introduce a platform for employees to showcase their talents & creativity
Every person has some uniqueness and some or the other talent. There can be a poets, writers, dancers, singers, photographers, and artists in your organization who have lost the touch of their art due to their full-time jobs. Encourage them to get in touch with their creative side. Provide them with a platform wherein they can showcase their talents and arts internally within the organization. This will keep their creative side active which will in turn benefit their personal as well as the organizational growth.
For example- On a common platform which is accessible to all the employees, you can create a page ‘Talent Synergy,’ ‘Powerplay,’ ‘Talent Possessed’ etc. Give the access to employees to post or upload videos or pictures showcasing their talent. Encourage people to react and comment on that.
Not only this, but occasionally HRs can also conduct a ‘Talent show’ giving employees the opportunities to perform. The best performance can also be rewarded.
4. Encourage employees to Share their ideas & Act on good ideas
While promoting creativity, encouraging employees to come up with new ideas and taking initiatives is equally important. Employee participation should not be restricted only to their job deliverables. Apart from their daily work, employees should be encouraged to come up with new and better ideas in other aspects of business. They should feel free to use their creativity and give their opinions about daily functioning of business.
At Elastik Teams, we have different topics of discussions in our Daily standup meeting, one of which is ‘Book Reading Discussion’ which is an initiative taken by one of our finest Software Development Engineer who conducts these sessions.
One of our Engineer also planned and organized a Workcation recently as a part of our culture. This is a good example of how employees are more engaged if they are allowed to use their creativity and take initiatives.
5. ‘Creativity’ as a criterion for ‘Rewards and Recognition’
Rewards and recognition are an integral part of enhancing employee experience. There are different criterions on which employees are rewarded. One way to promote ‘Creativity’ in the organization is to ‘Reward Creativity.’ Therefore, HRs should keep this as a criterion for ‘Rewards and Recognition’. If possible, they can also introduce a separate reward for Creativity and Innovation. For example- Ace of initiative, Lord of Creativity, Creative Corporate-Pati etc.
6. Post a creative content once in a week for employees to read & allow them to share their views or comments on the same
This content can be based on some recent news. It can be questions asking for opinions or questions in the form of a poll on WhatsApp group or some Common group in Microsoft Teams. The purpose of this is to make employees think and utilize their brain in the most optimum manner. Encourage them to share relevant articles, writeups or links to podcast that they come across. Occasionally HRs can also post some interesting case studies or puzzles in WhatsApp groups. This activity helps keep the employees proactive.
This is how HRs can promote Creativity in their organization and keep their employees proactive & emotionally invested. This in turn becomes an important contribution to organizational effectiveness.
