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You are here: Home / Worked for Her / Worked for Her: ‘Seat Shuffle’ helped our employees connect as a team

Worked for Her: ‘Seat Shuffle’ helped our employees connect as a team

October 1, 2018 By Jennifer Azara

Imagine you had a network of women leaders all across the country that you could tap anytime you wanted to find out what’s working for them. With our exclusive feature, Worked for Her, you do. In our most recent installment, Kristen Kenny, Director of People Operations in Cambridge, MA, shares how she improved teamwork with a few rounds of “musical chairs.”

We knew it would help employee engagement and retention if our people were constantly building relationships with different co-workers.

But that’s not always easy when employees are busy.

So we instituted the “Seat Shuffle.” Every few months, we had employees switch seats, so they’d sit next to people they hadn’t gotten a chance to know.

In addition, we made sure employees from different departments like Sales and Marketing all sat together – rather than walling employees off by department.

A group shuffle

It started as a completely random seat shuffle, during which everyone in the office would move at once. But as we’ve grown, things have changed a little to avoid chaos.

Now we group people into areas based on customer personas.

Example: Sales and Marketing employees who work with customers in one particular industry – say education – all sit together.

That area will then conduct its own shuffle – rather than moving everyone in the office at once.

The strategy has:

  • helped employees make new friends
  • led to faster communication between departments, and
  • improved customer service, since departments can collaborate easier.

(Kristen Kenny, Director of People Operations, Cambridge, MA)

For 100 additional real-life solutions from women leaders, check out our e-guide

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Filed Under: Worked for Her, Featured Home Tagged With: engagement, leadership, retention, seat, seat shuffle, shuffle, team, teamwork, woman, women, womens

About Jennifer Azara

“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means somebody’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind leading.” -- Amy Poehler, Actress
 
I’m thrilled to have recently joined Progressive Women’s Leadership in the role of Managing Editor. I’ve worked as a writer and editor for more than 18 years, covering a variety of “beats” from CFOs to warehouse workers. But this is the one I’m most excited about. The key to editorial success is to be in constant contact with your audience – find out what info they need, what keeps them up at night. Then work tirelessly to give them that with every story. I want our site to be the first resource you go to when you have a challenge at work. This bossy woman is ready to get down to business!

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