CivTech 5 - Challenge 10 - Empowering / Fostering networks and new connections for work local.

How we go about work and business is being redefined by the need to respond to and live in a post-COVID world. It is very likely that at-home and near-home working will be important, with organisations both large and small adopting distributed workforce models.

How can tech drive the vital development of informal networks and break down the barriers to connectedness within the distributed workplace?

Networks play a vital role in all aspects of the economy. They drive the sharing of knowledge, skills, experience, expertise, and ideas. These “increments of chit-chat” help build long lasting valuable relationships.

Best practice in the design of our physical office spaces is often based on supporting exactly this type of informal social interaction and creating the right culture and atmosphere to foster this. But it is incredibly difficult to replicate this when working remotely.

Formal interaction is well catered for in the digital realm through applications which support face to face online meetings; there are a plethora of messaging and community tools which also support less formal interaction based around “communities of interest”. However, the ‘coffee stop’ interaction, the ‘bump’ in the corridor with someone you maybe haven’t seen in a while, and the unexpected, serendipitous meeting with someone new are things that are not readily available online.

Without such informal interaction there is a risk that people are left excluded; either from the career development opportunities which come from informal social interaction, or left out of opportunities to collaborate across a wider pool of teams, or excluded through feeling socially more isolated through the absence of the casual conversations in the canteen. Creating this in the context of a public sector organisation, empowering its people to interact with people both inside and outside their organisation has the potential to drive huge advantages - particularly if it also increases interaction between people working in different sectors, be that in the public, private, third or academic sectors.

So how can tech help foster the development of informal networks when people are working at home or in Work Local hubs, in a way that is safe, secure and will drive the vital development of informal networks and the cross-pollination of ideas?

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