During the past 2 years since the advent of COVID-19, uncountable companies have shifted to mostly or fully virtual environments. Indeed, the business paradigm has shifted, creating a new, exciting landscape for forward-centered companies to capitalize in.
Many companies that used to operate on the traditional brick-and-mortar model are in dire need of online team-building resources. An entirely new industry has emerged in response to this sudden global demand.
Maintaining company culture has become a challenge for many team leaders as they adapt to and embrace the novel intricacies associated with doing business online.
The good news is that various online team-building activities are proving to be quite effective, helping remote team members to optimize productivity while also enhancing their happiness.
For instance, Rockoly provides a platform for Covid-displaced cooking teams to reunite online and continue learning together. Teams can communicate and have fun, choose their menus, and even choose to have any necessary ingredients delivered to their locations with the quick click of a mouse.
Team Building Awards is another example of companies forming to meet the needs of this new industry of virtual team building. Online students can meet to learn about cooking, beverage mixing, arts & crafts, health & wellness, and more.
Online team building increases productivity and communication. Harvard Business Review and other authoritative industry leaders provide loads of tips and methods for enhancing team comradery and workflow.
These include using group communication platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams to engage in team-based challenges, including:
- Group fitness classes
- Scavenger hunts
- Virtual campfires
- Icebreakers
- Contests
- Karaoke
- Games
These online activities help to deepen the relationships between team members by encouraging communication, collaboration, and laughter.
Online team building activities help combat loneliness and boredom that affects many homeworkers, especially those who used to rely heavily on the socialization they previously engaged in at their workplaces.
Benefits of Online Team Building Activities
The benefits of online team-building activities are countless. Consider the following ways that virtual activities can help your team to grow stronger and put leadership skills to the test:
- Enhanced communication helps your team focus on cohesion and efficient interaction. This will help sharpen productivity and clarify the vision of all team members, helping them work together more fluently to achieve common goals.
- Virtual group activities boost morale by driving away loneliness and stagnation. It can be challenging working from home, especially if it’s new to you. Online team-building activities will improve motivation and make the entire team feel like they belong.
- Group-based creative exercises will enhance cognitive performance in all team members. Problem-solving exercises will sharpen your team’s brains and increase group cohesion.
- Team-based fitness classes will help home-based team members to stay physically agile and healthier in general. It’s easy to forget to stand up now and then and move around when you work from home. Physical fitness matters!
Well-planned virtual team-building activities can increase motivation and encourage cooperation between team members. Communicating better with enhanced collaboration will increase efficiency and create a more positive online working environment.
Enhances team communication
Online team-building activities enhance communication between team members. These out-of-office activities encourage members to solve problems cohesively as a unit. It allows them to relax and have fun while still accomplishing team goals. Carefully planned activities will engage each team member individually so everybody meets each other.
Improves team collaboration
Cooperation in virtual teams can decline unless the company maintains a collaborative culture. Effective collaboration encourages all team members to consider and understand the roles of every member and why they’re important. Online team-building activities instill trust between team members and build interpersonal connections to help them work more cohesively as a group.
Makes teams more productive
Enhanced communication and collaboration between team members will positively impact productivity. Virtual team building activities decrease friction, reduce the chances of duplicated work, and increase individual contributions from each team member. In the long run, increased happiness and productivity lead to higher profit margins.
Enhances team dynamics
Effective online team-building activities can benefit your company by developing connections between geographically distributed team members. Some research has shown that being part of a social group significantly influences persistence while pursuing a goal. When there are others to look out for, you have greater motivation to stay on task.
Brings out leadership
When your team participates in fun challenges without the pressures of staff hierarchy, each member can demonstrate their best innate strengths. Managers can spot future leaders by how they participate and interact during virtual team-building activities.
While working from home may be the “New Normal”, it’s not readily assimilated by all people equally. Online team-building activities will help your team to adapt to their new lifestyles while learning new creative ways to optimize productivity and profit.
4 Effective Methods for Building Successful Remote Teams
According to Forbes, there are four integral factors to building a successful remote team. They involve enhancing communication, celebrating small victories, increasing socialization, and encouraging a sense of accomplishment in every team member. Let’s look closer at each.
Communicate smarter, not more
More communication is not always better. Leaders in many companies are over-scheduling Zoom meetings and other virtual meetings, attempting to increase cohesiveness in their teams.
However, when these meetings are unstructured and without real purpose, they can only decrease productivity and motivation.
Communication is indeed key to success in all types of endeavors. However, effective communication is key; but not communication just for the sake of it. Your team needs to be aligned, with common goals, and clearly defined processes for achieving those goals.
So take the extra time you need to ensure that every virtual meeting has an agenda, a structure, specific action items, and a time limit.
Also, make it mandatory that every team member has their camera on during these meetings. Facial expressions, body movements, and other non-verbal gestures are imperative to proper and effective communication. Leave the cameras on.
Remember that if you communicate effectively and efficiently, you will need less communication overall. Don’t waste your or your teams’ precious time over-communicating with no real purpose.
Every win Is a WIN!
People that work remotely can fall into deep holes of boredom, isolation, and loneliness. This can cause productivity to fall and inefficiency to develop. That’s why your team should use methods that facilitate effective communication across the entire company, not just within certain departments.
Consider making a weekly announcement about team member achievements as part of your company meeting. Make it a point to celebrate the latest achievements and productivity surpluses within each department. Your team doesn’t require a major production achievement to celebrate. Every small victory is an excellent reason to have a virtual party!
Making it a big deal when anybody goes the extra mile to reinforce company culture will help to solidify team cohesiveness and enhance long-term productivity.
Socialization enhances Life
Inability to unplug and loneliness are the two most common complaints from home-based workers. They miss in-person happenings like holiday celebrations, office luncheons, and team-building exercises. In-house activities like those increase team morale by encouraging and developing friendships.
When we work in isolation, at home, online, by ourselves, we miss out on important socialization events. And though it may not seem like it all at once, cumulatively, it wears on us. Nobody wants to sit at home working alone all the time!
Forward-thinking leaders develop virtual social event schedules to keep their teams engaged. Fun online activities like escape rooms, icebreakers, scavenger hunts, and remote happy hours enhance the socialization of your team members, which adds to increased long-term happiness and contentment.
Encourage Leadership
Even and especially in a remote work setting, it’s important to allow each team member the chance to lead. Encouraging leadership within the team is imperative for long-term success. You can Implement new policies that strengthen your company culture and allow your employees to decide whether they fit in the future vision or not.
Develop surveys for your team, asking their opinions on the current state of the company and its future direction. Let them be a part of shaping your company for the future. Appreciate their valuable feedback and the one-on-one aspect of psychology that it enables you to be a part of.
Don’t take it for granted because the core of every company lies in the hearts and souls of its team members.