Finding The Right Team Building Activities For Your Remote Team
As the work landscape shifts at lightning speed, remote or distributed teams are popping up everywhere. According to one study, 22% of the US workforce will be remote by 2025, an increase of 87% from before the pandemic. This shift makes it essential for companies to focus on effective teamwork and collaboration among their far-flung staff members. While remote or hybrid work models can bring many work-life benefits, more than a third of Glassdoor survey respondents expressed loneliness and isolation. Nearly 40% of them said remote work made it harder to connect with colleagues.
So, how can we address these feelings of isolation and loneliness and foster a close-knit, supportive team? By proactively encouraging communication and collaboration, you can foster engagement and connection among your remote employees by implementing our top 5 remote team-building tips. When done properly, team building can boost creativity, communication, innovation, and trust.
Why Is Team Building Important for Remote Employees?
Team-building activities are important in creating a close-knit and engaged team, especially when everyone’s working from their own home. Here are five reasons why you should make team building part of your plan to bring out the best in remote teams:
- Building stronger bonds: Virtual team-building activities help build solid connections among remote coworkers by giving them chances to interact. Getting chummy across departments can boost the whole organization’s performance—leading to higher productivity and success.
- Better collaboration: Team building helps improve how well everyone communicates and works together as a unit, which means smoother collaboration among those remote employees who join these activities.
- Boosting morale: Team-building efforts can raise employee spirits, job satisfaction levels, and overall happiness at work. When remote teammates feel more connected to their colleagues and company through these experiences, they will likely be more motivated and engaged in their daily tasks.
- Higher retention rates: By investing in team-building initiatives, you can help your remote staff feel more valued and connected. This will make them more likely to stay committed to their jobs and the company, increasing employee retention rates.
- Smoother communication: Virtual team-building activities significantly enhance communication skills, which are indispensable when tasks need to be assigned or feedback needs to be disseminated promptly among colleagues.
To understand the impact of employee engagement on business outcomes, consider the following data based on Gallup survey findings:
| Metric | Impact of Increased Engagement |
|---|---|
| Turnover Rates | 27% Lower |
| Safety Incidents | 40% Fewer |
| Productivity | 12% Higher |
What Do You Need To Consider When Planning Virtual Team-Building Activities?
When organizing remote team-building virtual events, there are several key factors to think about. These considerations help ensure everyone can benefit from and feel included in the activities. Research shows that employees who feel their views are valued tend to give their best at work. That’s why considering each person’s preferences is important for creating an inclusive and valued atmosphere within the team.
By actively engaging your crew in the planning process, you create a cooperative environment that encourages ownership over the chosen activities—making them more meaningful for everyone involved. Remember that different folks have unique preferences regarding structure and activity types—some thrive on organized fun, while others enjoy laid-back vibes. Acknowledging these differences helps create a more inclusive (and enjoyable) team-building experience.
Selecting the Right Activities
Team building is not a one-size-fits-all model so I’ve broken it down into 3 different categories: ice breakers, team bonding and trust building. Within each category, you can find short, medium and longer options so you can opt for the perfect activity for any situation.
1. Ice Breakers
Ice breakers are great to get the group warmed up and comfortable. They work well for the virtual environment and could last around 10-20 minutes or so, depending on the size of the group.
- Intros (1-10 minutes): The first ice breaker is quick group introductions. You can prompt team members to talk about a recent experience, book, movie or other non-business related interests.
- Improv (10-30 minutes): These get the group in a playful mood, boost creativity and set the tone for a humble environment where mistakes are welcome. Exercises like Switch and Word Association are simple and get people strengthening their impromptu speaking muscles, connected and often, laughing.
- Games (30-60 minutes): Games are a wonderful way to really get the team loosened up and comfortable with one another. Check out an app called ‘Houseparty’ that offers a more informal setting with tons of virtual games like trivia, chips and guac, or heads up.
2. Team Bonding
Team bonding is about cultivating a sense of belonging in the team and will help the group get to know each other on a deeper level. Belonging is core to our psychology, and you can foster it in your team by doing activities that bond the team together.
Find Commonalities (1-10 minutes): In a team meeting, split the team up into pairs and give them some time to discover these commonalities together. At first, they may talk about general “trivia” aspects of their lives (single or married, kids, where they grew up, where they live). After that, they’ll start diving into deeper aspects of their personality (hobbies, quirks, pet peeves, challenges, accomplishments).
3. Trust Building
Trust building is important so that people feel safe to openly share their ideas and have a sense that the team has their back. Informal interactions allow members to better understand each other’s strategies, refining their collective decision-making prowess.
