5 Non-Cheesy Team Building Tips For Remote Employees

Practice these five strategies for team building remote teams and you’ll have a motivated, engaged, and cooperative virtual crew. What are the best strategies for team building remote teams? Does team building for remote employees even make sense when your crew may never interact with or see each other? There are plenty of reasons to put more effort into how the remote cogs in your employee machine work together. And the tips you’ll learn today will help you foster greater teamwork without costing your business a fortune in time or money. So let’s discuss why team building remote teams is worth your effort and resources.

Why Team Building is Crucial for Remote Teams

It’s a bit tougher to build a team atmosphere when everyone works out-of-the-office, but taking on this task will repay your business tenfold. Here is why you should make it a priority:

Focus Employees On the Same Goals

Remote employees may be working in silos on their own tasks. They may not see how accomplishing their work duties fits into the broader goals of your business. Team building exercises get all employees to collaborate on the same shared goals and communicate about how they plan to reach them, both individually as teammates and collectively as a cohesive unit. Set the foundation for cooperation during these exercises, and the spirit of teamwork should carry through the work environment.

Create Shared Experiences

Employees working remotely miss out on the in-office water cooler conversations, afternoon birthday cake breaks, and other shared experiences in-house employees participate in. But that doesn’t mean you can’t reach out remotely to create the same vibes. Team building, in this sense, interjects a bit of fun into your remote employees’ day. This quick mental break cuts through the monotony of their work tasks and may also boost productivity. These virtual, communal breaks allow employees to connect as peers and discuss things that may not be overtly work-related.

Build a Healthy Remote Work Environment

Having a healthy remote work environment makes everyone love remote work (even more)! Your remote employees may have no trouble socializing outside of work, but working all day remotely can get very isolating. If they experience little to no personal interaction with other employees, they may feel as if they’re not really part of the team. By actively engaging often, you’ll help your employees feel acknowledged, appreciated, and like an essential member of the pack. All these good feelings may push out loneliness and welcome productivity.

How to Commit To Team Building Your Remote Team

Creating a team-oriented atmosphere virtually is easier than you may think — as long as you make it a priority. If you think you can simply “wing it” with remote team building, you’re going to have a bad time. Follow these two tips to make your team building a success:

• Create a team-building action plan: Similar to following a workout plan, a team-building action plan makes it much easier to implement your strategies and streamline the whole process. When you know what needs to be done and when, the rest is just about actually doing it. Skip mapping out your plan of attack, and the craziness of your days could get the best of your team building hopes.
• Use a calendar to keep you on track: If you don’t add team building to your calendar, several days, weeks, or months may pass without you checking in on your team aside from work-related matters. That’s why you must schedule all the activities you laid out in your team building action plan earlier in your calendar.

Proposed Engagement Schedule:

• Daily: Short check-ins to ensure engagement goals are met.
• Weekly & Monthly: Scheduled activities from your action plan.
• Quarterly & Yearly: Major team building milestones and check-ins.

Set daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly check-ins for team building to make sure you’re meeting your engagement goals.