Meet the Team: How can this help your business?

Back in the day

In the traditional workplace employees would often sit at the same desk next to the same people for months or even years on end. This close-knit environment enabled workers to get to know each other on a personal basis resulting in strong bonds and turning into long term friendships.

Fast forward to the new normal and this has all changed with workers dispersed across the country enjoying a newfound freedom of remote and hybrid working. It is now commonplace for workers employed during or after the pandemic to have never met their teammates in person. And while video conferencing facilitates an element of face-to-face contact this is usually under a restricted timeframe dictated by the start and end of the meeting leaving no room for chit chat.

Therefore, this newfound flexibility has come at a price with employees no longer having the ability to mingle and socialise with co-workers making getting to know each other a lot more difficult. The social element of office life has been fractured leaving staff members wondering who they are really working with.

Meet the team

An effective way to introduce teammates is to create Meet the Team profiles which if designed correctly can be a creative way to showcase employees and demonstrate the human side of the brand. Having an effective meet the team page extends the gap between video conferencing and phone conversations offering your remote team and your customers a positive experience.

Many companies already have an about us page on their website directing customers and employees to a place where they might see a photo and read a short professional bio. However, the meet the team concept goes a step further giving an insight into the person, their personality, likes, wants, and quirks.

Who should be included?

The answer depends on the size of the company. If you have a large business with hundreds of staff members, it isn’t feasible to showcase them all in detail. In this case you could include photos of team members on your website with a link to their LinkedIn page and reserve detailed profiles for C-Suite executives, customer services personnel and managers. If on the other hand you only consist of a small team, you may want to take time to introduce everyone in a more personal way.

What information should be included?

The whole point of Meet the Team is to inject some creative fun, after all this content will be posted on websites and social media channels and therefore needs to be engaging.

Here are 4 sets of questions to consider:

1. Straightforward - If you prefer a scaled back version you could opt for a straightforward profile focusing on name, business title, what they like about the company, previous experience and how they plan to make a difference.

2. Softer questions – Another option is to spice it up by adding what we refer to as the softer questions, focusing on their favourite quote, film, music, and book.

3. Get personal - Move it up a notch by diving into questions in the search for further personal information, how do they start their day, what keeps them awake at night, what would they change about the industry.

4. Make it pop - Go full throttle with fun and interesting questions to gather a real insight into the mind and personality of the employee. Ask ‘why’ questions such as why a specific colour, why would they like to have dinner with a famous person and why would they choose a certain superpower.

Presentation is everything!

This is where the cool stuff begins and where boundaries can be pushed when thinking about how to showcase your employee profiles. You could ere on the cautious side by writing a blog, but this is a waste of the valuable content you’ve spent time gathering and may look more like a CV. Instead get visually creative always ensuring that you stay true to your brand.

Finally, don’t forget to add a CTA perhaps adding a link to your website or one of your social media pages.

Summary

Meet the team content is one of the best ways to introduce your company and your team. It emphasises the in-house skills that are crucial to your business lifting staff from beyond the screen and out into the open. It’s a fun way to help your team to get to know each other, forging relationships so that they can enjoy where they work and feel part of a real team.

Think about meet the team content as a way of giving confidence to your brand by humanising your business. Increasing transparency is a very effective way of opening the inner depths of your company which encourages trust between yourself, your team, and your customers.