In recent times, working remotely has become a necessity. Even though working remotely can be a good thing, it does not come without its challenges.
As more people than ever before join the ranks of full time or part time remote work, they are now faced with navigating the life of being distanced from co-workers and the challenges of feeling disconnected from the team. Employees who are new to transitioning into working remotely can face the challenge of feeling distracted by home life, or just feeling distracted period. This could lead to longer working hours as employees feel obligated to work longer to make up for time lost during the day.
These factors combined can cause an employee to feel unsettled and unfocused. No one performs at their best when they are unfocused. If left unchecked, all of these factors can affect employee morale.
The good news is, should either of these pitfalls of remote working occur, it doesn't have to stay that way - something can be done about it. The better news is that you and your organization can be proactive in facilitating opportunities to build and maintain strong connections among employees, as well as opportunities to empower employees in managing their workload. Better still, this can all be accomplished by conveniently hosting virtual team building activities on a virtual events platform.
Think of it this way: how do you make s'mores without marshmallows? We don't know but we bet your team could figure it out during a virtual team building session!
Incorporate engaging ways for your team to form positive work relationships and help them to improve their work-life balance. Let's explore a selection of virtual team building activities that you can do with your team.
Create a virtual escape room or maze filled with challenges, quizzes, and clues. Host this as a timed team event. It would be a relaxed, fun-filled team activity that can be done at the end of the month.
Split everyone into individual teams. Each team must work together to escape the maze or room and use event chat rooms for team communication. Award a prize to the team that is able to escape first and include an event scoreboard to add to the friendly competition.
If none of the teams have escaped the virtual room or maze before all the time has run out, then the prize goes forward to be added as a bonus prize during the escape challenge in the upcoming month, and all the teams must remain as they are with the same team members.
At the end of the event, have all the teams come together in a virtual meeting room where each team will take turns to discuss what when right, what went wrong, what they could do better, and what they learned.
This event will help your entire team to learn to work together. Your team will also learn to maximize each other's strengths and embrace each other's weaknesses. More importantly, they will learn to be supportive through each person's growth as each of them continues to work on areas they wish to improve on.
Everyone needs a win. It really does wonders for building confidence and self-esteem when someone achieves goals they have set for themselves.
Just before the start of everyone month, have everyone on your team submit a goal they would like to achieve within 28-30 days, along with images associated with that goal. It does not have to be a work-related goal. It could be a self-development goal such as learning a new language, or starting/restarting their fitness and health journey, or learning how to cook!
Create a virtual room where everyone's goal for the month can be displayed like a virtual vision board. Create a display space where team members can share tips, advice, and general support. Ask your team to post weekly photos or short videos to share their progress.
Submitting videos and photos would be optional, but it is a key part of the exercise. Encourage your team so they feel motivated to buy-in and fully participate. Ultimately, this exercise would create the opportunity to have built-in support and positive reinforcement as part of your team's culture.
Encouraging a better work-life balance is also important to boosting the morale of your team. Working from home very often leads to the temptation to work for prolonged periods without taking a break. There are two things that occur when employees do this: mental fatigue which can cause a reduction in focusing on tasks; and physical fatigue as a result of sitting in a particular position for extended periods. Not every employee has an office desk and chair at home, and home furniture isn't designed to function the same way office furniture.
Encourage your team to take a break for 5 to 10 minutes at different points throughout the day to stretch and move around, especially when working remotely. Encourage your team to go outside for 10 minutes at least once during the day. This will allow your team members to decompress and feel energized by a short walk outdoors, and it will help their minds to relax and refocus.
Use a virtual events platform to create virtual team rooms for each department in your organization where each department can upload their outdoor photo of the day. Include a team chat and display board where team members can interact and even award virtual team prizes for the photo of the day.
Customize a meeting space on a virtual events platform and host a time management webinar. This type of activity would empower your team, as it would be a source of guidance on how to effectively manage their time, be it working remotely or in the office. This type of webinar would provide your team with insight on best to streamline their workload, which would in turn alleviate stress and help your team members to maintain their focus.
Use pre-recorded content or create a hybrid experience with live presentations and recorded content. Make the webinar interactive with live discussions, and question and answer sessions, in addition to breakout rooms for live team exercises. Create a resource center for your internal team webinar by adding related material such as documents and infographics that your team members can download and use.
Encourage follow-up sessions for anyone who might need further assistance by allowing your team to book follow-up appointments for one-to-one guidance in effective time management. Don't take it for granted that everyone has a fool-proof system. We could all benefit from a refresher and the chance to learn something new.
We're all learning to adapt to a new norm and learning to face new challenges. Using a virtual events platform to create a dynamic team hub that will make it possible for your team to still build and maintain strong social connections while working remotely is an approach your entire organization can benefit from.
When preparing to have a virtual meeting with your team, you can cut down your learning curve with these 8 Secrets of Leading a Successful Virtual Meeting. Take the time to support your team and help them stay motivated. Your team is your organization’s greatest asset!