Article authored by Rafael Farrim, Talent Manager at KCS iT, originally published in Human Resources Portugal.

I have always championed the benefit of remote work as a driver of a healthy work-life balance. When, in mid-March, my company decided to move employees to remote work for their safety, I felt excited to finally put into practice, for the first time, what I had been reading and suggesting.

At the time, no State of Emergency had yet been declared, and I had no idea that the expected two weeks of remote work would turn into more than two months. When my colleagues and I became aware of that, we also began to realize the challenges this situation would bring us.

I make a point of keeping a follow-up plan for my colleagues, which begins as early as the Recruitment and Selection process and continues through several phases of their professional life. This approach aims to work on several factors in managing their careers, from onboarding, motivation within the work context, satisfaction with internal processes, and training needs, among others.

However, remote work of this duration brought a factor that is the exact opposite of our entire follow-up process: an increase in social and professional distance.

A good part of my day, as Talent Manager, is set aside for internal communication with employees; during this period the responsibilities and frequency of contacts (especially contacts initiated by me and the rest of the Human Resources team) rose exponentially, since I knew there would be more questions, clarifications needed, and a greater need to communicate, given the uncertain context around us.

With that in mind, my colleagues and I took a preventive approach, so that every employee would feel they had a point of connection with the company, someone ready to help them with the "pains" of change, relying on several communication channels. We answered questions by email or WhatsApp, held meetings by phone, Zoom, or Teams, and adapted our internal communication channels so we could reach everyone more nimbly, according to their needs. We wanted everyone to know they had someone ready to help, to solve, to mediate, or even just someone to talk to.

The result was a boost to a sense of internal community, since nothing generates this feeling like being in similar situations and having someone to share our doubts, joys, frustrations, and victories with. At KCS IT, for example, you can see this feeling through the high participation in initiatives promoted by our marketing and management team, such as our "KCS IT at home" videos (which share the everyday life at home of employees from our various offices), our challenges such as "show your mug" or the by-now classic team photo during a video call.

Social distancing ended up being a catalyst for this effective increase in communication effort, and the goal will be to keep it up for the future of smart work and to keep creating initiatives that grow the sense of belonging to the "K Family."