Your internal team building and networking strategies do not need to be put to a halt because of social distancing.
Speaking to many of our clients and candidates over the past weeks have revealed a growing desire for virtual team-building incentives within individual organisations. This coupled with research highlighting that doing so forms a sense of community and interconnectivity - we have put together a helpful guide on virtual team building whilst we are working from home for the foreseeable future.
The hurdle many are trying to overcome is –how do I introduce and encourage these incentives without receiving push back from my employer?
Whilst adaptive and innovative organisations can be quick to adopt remote team-building strategies, we appreciate that others may be slow or unwilling to do so. We encourage you to try to speak to your managers or the HR department to highlight your reasons for wanting to introduce virtual teambuilding such as:
To build team rapport:
Building a rapport with your team is particularly important if you are still onboarding candidates, or perhaps if you recently took on new employees before COVID-19 as it encourages building mutual trust, encouraging team understanding.
To improve communication:
Just like meeting colleagues in the office can increase your understanding of employee decision-making processes, maintaining communication streams through teambuilding exercises can truly improve your teams’ ability to reduce any potential misunderstandings.
Boost morale, uplifting spirits:
For many, this time period is lonely and a toll on emotional wellbeing, therefore team building sessions can truly work to maintain the overall positivity within teams.
Of course, these are just a few of the basic reasons. All in all, teambuilding in any sense encourages productivity for goals to be reached. Employers who can reflect their dynamic ability to support teams virtually are more likely to build trust, which is crucial during this period of unknown and can provide a small sense of normality in an otherwise rapidly changing world.
Managers remember - happy employees are more likely to go above and beyond for you. This can be particularly crucial if your organisation is customer-facing, providing a service. Happy employees will reflect incredibly well with your customers.
Ways you can remotely team build virtually:
· Weekly themed quizzes
· Virtual gym classes
· Virtual lunch meetings
· Virtual bingo & tournaments
· Virtual wine tasting
· Weekly wrap-up (with drinks of course)
· Guess the desk
Catherine Wallis, our Regional Manager highlights; “I would highly recommend regularity in these virtual get-together’s so that your teams have a structure for the week. A Monday morning kick-off for planning and a more relaxed informal Friday afternoon review of the week with a beer. I think it’s great to give individuals a specific focus to report back on during our Friday review - so that everyone in the team has an opportunity to speak. Perhaps mid-week catch-up or quiz/work out/team building activity - just to keep people connected.”