Five ways to “ignite” employees remotely: how LANIT supports team spirit at a distance

“In interaction with employees, we are more likely to catch up with this marketing trend,” says Alexandra Schultz, head of the Center for HR Brand Development and SMM at LANIT . – The pandemic and the subsequent self-isolation very quickly brought many communication formats from the experimental zone to the zone of urgent need. We found ourselves in completely new circumstances and began to try things that we would not have dared to do before.”

Gathering everyone for an offline event during an epidemic was dangerous. In addition, it is difficult to imagine a holiday or sports tournament for 14 thousand people from different cities. As a result, at one point it became impossible to create a unified corporate culture only offline. The main advantage of fidgetal is precisely this – one-time coverage of a larger audience.

“During the pandemic, many employees missed events in the office, while others, on the contrary, admired remote work and emphasized how it changed their quality of life for the better,” continues Alexandra Schultz. “In the end, we found a compromise at the intersection of these two formats – in hybrid communications that shape our new reality.”

Radio corporate

Under the new approach, corporate culture is less and less tied to the physical location of employees and more dependent on the level of employee engagement and sharing of common values.

For example, a radio corporate event on the occasion of the company’s birthday was listened to live by about three thousand people, and two thousand messages were sent to the general chat that day.

“We really wanted to find an original format for an online event in which the maximum number of employees could participate. We set up a radio studio in the office, invited professional presenters, and thought through the broadcast script,” recalls Alexandra Schultz. — Guests came to the studio – top managers, employees who had worked in the company for more than 10-15 years. We interviewed them, and during pauses we organized prize draws for listeners and called birthday people. It was very nice to hear the voices of colleagues from the cities most remote from Moscow in a live broadcast.”

Interactive New Year for children

Following the corporate event for employees, the children’s New Year tree was also transformed. This is where online broadcasting came to the rescue.

On the eve of the holidays, at certain times, children of employees tuned in to watch performances from their home gadgets. Two New Year’s performances were organized: for children from three to six years old and from seven to ten. Even younger children watched the broadcast in the company of their parents.

At the same time, little viewers could interact both with the characters and with each other: write in the chat, answer quiz questions and even dance in a virtual disco.

“Children already have different idols – for example, the main characters of our shows were not Father Frost and the Snow Maiden, but social networks and characters from computer games who came to life in a fairy tale,” continues the speaker.

Cyber ​​Championship

Esports and IT are inextricably linked. There are quite a lot of players in LANIT, and the company maintains their interest.

“We were surprised to discover this new facet of our corporate DNA. Organizing competitions in the most popular disciplines (CS:GO, Dota 2, World Of Tanks and FIFA), we did not expect such a big response. It was as if we pressed a button and everything started spinning. I think that all IT specialists have a passion for computer games at the genetic level,” says Alexandra Schultz .

First, there were competitions among employees and e-sports competitions with partner companies. The next step is that LANIT became the organizer of the first corporate cyber tournament “Banks against IT” – seven companies on each side.

“The tournament lasted three months, which once again confirmed the interest of the players. Unfortunately, our team did not reach the final. However, the team from one of the largest telecommunications companies won the championship, so the leadership in e-sports still remained with representatives of the IT sector, continues Schultz. “For us it was a very important experience, including organizational experience.”

In 2022, the company has already acted as a general partner of the International eSports Championship “Business Champions League”. Thanks to this support, the winners of the championship will receive valuable prizes: backpacks, keyboards and other gaming accessories from leading manufacturers of e-sports peripherals.

LANIT Group President Philippe Gens noted that the company plans to take eSports tournaments to a higher level: the interest in this sport is enormous: “We want to continue to actively develop this area, as well as inspire and involve colleagues in the market. And the partnership with the “League of Business Champions” is ideal for our goals and objectives – in particular, the project has a ready-made, intensively developing platform. I am confident that by combining our efforts, eSports in Russia will become even more powerful and larger-scale.”

LANIT already supports corporate e-sports outside of big tournaments, competing with other companies in friendly derbies. So the LANIT team played with the players of Uralsib Bank, winning with a score of 4:1.

If a potential opponent wants to compete with LANIT in eSports skills, then there are two ways. Firstly, this company can simply come to the Business Champions League and declare its desire to participate in the tournament. The second way is this: you can contact LANIT directly and hold a mini-championship in the format of a friendly derby.

Ready-made training, running and meditation programs in one application

Another tool that allows you to form an online community of interests is the LanitFit mobile sports app. The company launched it last year. LanitFit has ready-made training programs from professional trainers, morning exercises, functional training, as well as programs for running, yoga, breathing practices or meditation.

You can use the application to participate in marathons and group training. “We noticed that it is the competitive moment that spurs many people not to miss classes, morning jogs, or participate in challenges,” says Alexandra Schultz. “Together, our employees walked around the Earth, reached the most eastern point of Russia – Cape Dezhnev and returned back to Moscow, and on New Year’s Day they visited the residences of Father Frost and Santa. It was a relay race, when each of the participants chose a certain section of the path. The distance he traveled was displayed in the application and counted as part of the overall route.”

Bot for professional communication

For informal communication and networking with colleagues, you can subscribe to the Ferdinand chatbot on Telegram. It was launched in LANIT last year. The goal is to introduce as many company employees as possible to each other.

To do this, Ferdinand invites everyone to add their interests to the bot’s personal profile: describe their professional area of ​​expertise and talk about their hobbies. If there is no desire to share information about yourself, Ferdinand will select an interlocutor at random.

The Telegram bot will offer the formed pair of interlocutors to drink coffee together – in one of the cafes on the premises of the office or to meet online. After all, the interlocutor can live both in St. Petersburg and Krasnoyarsk.

The LANIT speaker emphasizes that chance is Ferdinand’s main “trick”. “If you want to go to a meeting with a certain person, you will do it anyway, and the bot helps you overcome yourself when you want to expand your network of contacts, but are shy or just too lazy to network on your own,” she assures.

Two weeks are allotted for a meeting with the interlocutor selected by the bot. After 14 days, the program will offer a new acquaintance. But no one will stop you from communicating further with those people who were found earlier.

Instead of a conclusion

The trend for entertaining employees is becoming a thing of the past and corporate communications as part of HR processes are “maturing.” In conditions of remote work and uncertainty, creating a comfortable psychological atmosphere comes to the fore. At the same time, in the new digital environment, hybrid interaction formats are becoming one of the key tools, helping companies to be on the same page with employees.