How To Maintain Virtual Team Building During Covid
The global Covid 19 pandemic has hugely changed the working world – and now, working remotely has become a ‘new normal’ for many organizations around the globe. But how do you keep your remote teams engaged? How do you get your entire group together and stay connected?
As a response to the Covid 19 pandemic, it’s been reported that worldwide 2500% more organizations are investing in virtual team building. Are you missing out?
Remote work offers plenty of benefits and has been a saving grace for many companies during the pandemic, but it also brings challenges.
The good thing is that virtual team building activities have progressed, too – so you can keep your remote team happy, engaged, and excited to be working with you.
Whether you want the thrill of escape rooms or simply a virtual coffee break, there are multiple ways you can provide your team with remote team building exercises and showcase your company culture – even at a distance.
Tips for remote team building activities
Remote team building activities don’t need to be anything spectacular or outrageous (although they can be), but there are certain things you can do to ensure you’re giving your team members the best opportunity to get involved – and feel less isolated.
- Make it regular – set time aside on a regular basis for your team building activities. It doesn’t necessarily have to be every week, but if you can, make sure the plan is consistent and followed through. This means if a team member misses one activity, they won’t be feeling even more isolated as they know there’s another one coming up. Providing team building on an ongoing basis is a great idea.
- Make it varied – doing the same thing week in, week out can be a good idea. If everyone knows the weekly quiz is at the same time each week, it can be a good anchor point for their working week and something to look forward to. But variety can keep your remote workers on their toes and ensure they’re committed to your company.
- Make it challenging and engaging – there are numerous ways to do this, but make sure any games or exercises you provide your colleagues keep them paying attention. Encourage them to work in a group with their teammates and use their communication skills. This will transfer into their work time and can help build trust among your team.
No matter what kind of approach you take – testing your team’s investigative skills in a murder mystery or challenging them in small teams with a series of games – make sure you make it work for everyone involved.
Friendly Competition
A certain way to get your team bonding and having fun together – while working remotely – is to engage them in a little bit of healthy competition.
Working from home can get lonely, stressful, and quite isolating, and as a result, your team members might start to drift off and reduce their input (and output) when it comes to working. Getting your remote employees together for a team quiz, virtual board games or a scavenger hunt could be the way forward.
You can still split your office into small groups and pit them against one another in various challenges – whether that’s trivia questions or a series of virtual challenges such as Pictionary or guessing favorite songs, competition can be a fun way to ensure your remote teams get involved.
It also engages each team member by getting them to think – and keeping their brains working through games could be the perfect way to keep them engaged with their work.
Make the most of technology
While Covid 19 has affected businesses in a negative way, it has also paved the way for technology to advance and be able to provide solutions to the world of social distancing.
Several offices can come together in one place using Zoom and Teams video chat services, paving the way for new virtual activities such as virtual escape rooms or online games.
Making Teams offer several exciting online team-building activities, from TED Education Puzzles to exciting sci-fi games such as The Void, where you can challenge your entire team to save the planet.
- Offer fully remote online games to your team members
- Keep colleagues excited, engaged, and connected with a fun activity
- Each person can get to know their co-workers better
Taking advantage of technology for your team-building activities doesn’t have to be spectacular, though. Consider offering your colleagues a movie night or even host a happy hour just before the weekend to get your employees in a good mood and encourage them to catch up like they would in the office.
Tailor your team building your way
It’s important to consider what the needs of your team are when providing team building activities. Each employee is different and not everyone will engage in the same way. That’s why it’s vital to think about varied games and activities to cater to each team member. While one employee might absolutely love a scavenger hunt, another might prefer to take part in a book club. Everything must be relevant and inclusive of all your team members.
How big your organization is, how big your teams are and the nature of their work should all be taken into account when organising team building for your company – and of course, your budget will always come into account.
- It doesn’t have to be all escape rooms and online games – a classic game of Pictionary or an art project might suffice
- Teams might respond differently to different exercises. While some will be challenging and encourage group discussion and foster communication among your company, others can simply be a way to let off steam (office happy hour doesn’t necessarily have to be in the office!)
- Consider creating a focus group to get employee feedback about how the team building is going and seek input from each team member
Whatever reason you’re looking into team building exercises – Covid 19 can’t stop you. While the pandemic has brought a host of challenges to businesses worldwide, it’s quite possible that offering a team building activity to your teams on a regular basis is more important than ever.
Why are team building activities important?
The way companies engage with their customers and their employees has changed dramatically in recent times. It is more important than ever to commit to improving company culture, providing community service, and operating in an ethical way.
Offering your employees the chance to take part in team building activities can be a key part of creating successful teams within your business. Team members can foster relationships, improve their communication skills and benefit from a more productive group moving forward.
With the global pandemic having a significant impact on the way businesses are run, offering online team building exercises can be a great way to give something back to the people who have adjusted and thrived in a time of global uncertainty.
There are many potential benefits of offering team building activities to your employees. Keeping your remote team happy, productive, and working together can really improve your virtual office.
- Target vital skills and core values to explore and educate
- Provide a change from the usual video conference calls
- Improve creativity, leadership qualities and collaboration via conference calls
- Get your employees together and help them learn about their colleagues and themselves
- Improved problem solving skills and team dynamics to maintain engagement in a fun way
Whether you want to take your team on a virtual trip to outer space and challenge their project management against a time limit or provide them with an online game to get them thinking and collaborating in creative ways, you can get everyone on the same page with the right team building activity.
Team building with Making Teams
Making Teams offers a huge array of team building activities, both online and in person, to suit any business. From improving problem solving to getting your employees from the office to the soup kitchen to exciting online games, we’ve got the activity to fulfill any requirements.
