Virtual teams are becoming increasingly common in today’s flexible working world. However, without the right engagement solutions, members of a virtual team can quickly find themselves feeling isolated from the rest of their company.
After all, remote employees spend a lot of time within their own specific silos, and that means that they miss out on opportunities to interact with their managers and peers. With a virtual team, there’s no opportunity for groups to bond over conversations at the coffee machine, or chat during a lunch break.
While those interactions might seem trivial, the truth is that teams need to feel connected to be productive. The more comfortable a team feels working together, the more likely they are to be satisfied in their job, and efficient when facing group projects.
The simplest solution to bridge the gap between digital employees is to introduce virtual team building activities. Here, we’ll look at just a few of the most popular solutions for connecting your remote workforce.
1. “Little Known Facts”
In school, when you first joined a new class, you might have been asked to share some facts about yourself with the group to help them get to know you better and break the ice. The “Little Known Facts” virtual team building solution builds on this concept, as most remote teams don’t have much time to mingle and chat online.
All you need to do is ask each member to send three personal facts to the leader of the team-building group. They should send that information to you a few days before the meeting, so that you have time to manage it. Then, you can enter the facts into a spreadsheet, and ask each team member to guess who the fact belongs to.
One of the facts could be about which team building activity each employee would most enjoy. There are plenty of options out there for inspiration, and you can try to find them at teambonding.com.au.
2. “The Video Roundtable”
The purpose of this game is to create a deeper bond between your virtual team members. Video conferencing is one of the most underutilised features among remote teams, but it’s a great way to build relationships and trust.
Video roundtable meetings include asking everyone in your team to get involved in a video conference for an update about what’s going well in the business, and what might need to change. The aim of this activity is to help team members communicate more openly about the things that are going on for them in the business, and build familiarity with a more “face-to-face” meeting style.
3. “Two Pictures”
Finally, the objective of “two pictures” is to share visual experiences with your team members. All you need to do to get started is ask people to share two pictures (not related to work), and spend a few minutes talking about why they chose to share those images.
Not only is this a fun way to take the focus off work for a while, but people tend to become more passionate when talking about things like their families, their friends and their hobbies. Pictures, combined with anecdotes from other people in the team, will help your groups to form deeper understandings of each other, which could lead to a more connected workforce.
This activity is similar in style to the “Little Known Facts” activity, but it’s much simpler, shorter and focused on images instead of text. When used correctly, it can feel as though you’re sharing framed photos on your office desk with your co-workers.
As we cannot meet one another during the pandemic, the office has decided to organize remote team-building activities. I am sure that everyone would like to be part of it as it makes us get along with each other.