Even before the onset of the coronavirus, and the resulting social distancing, remote work was already making inroads, as more employees were working from home or at least remotely. Of course, the fact that many employees have had to work from home has led to many people questioning their life work balance. Even though many social distancing restrictions have been lifted, many employees are reluctant to return to work. Simply because they view their office environment, along with the work commute, as being unnecessary to completing their regular work tasks. Because more people than ever are working remotely then team building, as a means of reinforcing team bonds, has suddenly become important. It’s not the teamwork that has bought itself to the fore, but rather the fact that so much work is now done remotely.

With technology, there are some processes which are similar to those in real life. But the idea of remote team building is still in its relative infancy and has yet to hit its virtual stride. Meaning many employees are slightly suspicious of the whole virtual team building exercise in itself.

One of the main factors that is holding back virtual team building are the preconceived attitudes towards all team building activities. They have a bad slick of being overlong, irrelevant, silly and boring. Most people would think of a typical team building activity as needing to be carried out in person with everyone working in the same physical environment together. In order to bring the team closer together there needs to be a shared experience. But the real problem stems from the fact that it's not easy to think of a means of doing this over the internet. 

Team Building Outcomes

One of the first things we need to consider is the financial cost in both time and company resources when organising a team building exercise. But if we look at data from previous team buildings, we can see that it’s very hard to argue against the number of benefits of  having all your employees partake in a team building exercise. One thing to keep at the front of your mind is that 96.3% of employees found that taking part in a team building exercise had a positive effect on both their relationships with their colleagues and also for their own confidence and well-being. Furthermore, 94.5% of all employees found that by using team building they were able to facilitate more open communication in the workplace environment. Look at the wide picture, but through a more negative lens, you can see that just a single conflict that involves a team of 6 people who are each earning $100,000 annually, would end up costing the company in the region of $255,000, if such issues remain unresolved.

In truth, companies can increase their productivity and their profits by many times through using team building as a tool for boosting engagement. The same is true whether the team building exercise was in real physical terms or simply an exercise streamed over the internet. With so many people being used to the workplace interaction, and now finding themselves working remotely from home, the shock of the change can feel as if the rug has been ripped out from under their day-to-day working lives. Social interaction is an important component necessary for any team or individual to function well. To that end, it's very important that management take the rudder and facilitate a working environment that's healthy for all employees, even if they're working remotely.

If you're going to be creating a team building activity for most employees, then there are several factors you should bear in mind. On the whole, the same strategies that can be applied to teams who are physically in an office environment, can also function perfectly well with remote teams. 

Assemble Your Pep Squad

As opportunities for social interaction have been reduced considerably, many people are now relearning how to socialize in a virtual world. It's all rather clunky and awkward and in some ways, it's unsurprising that many people have less enthusiasm for online team communication. This view of the virtual world is not surprising considering that both virtual team building, and the ideas behind it, are still very much in their infancy. One way to get over this initial reluctance to make use of remote means of communication, is to ask those particularly employees who have a knack of socialising, and radiate positivity, to participate first. This way they will set a positive group dynamic for the rest of the team and also help boost participation. 

It's important to get input from all team members if you're going to be doing a remote team building activity. We suggest a good idea is to organise recurring meetings so that everybody can brainstorm ideas. The session should be totally open for everyone and everyone should be encouraged to say exactly what's on my mind. This way, this can be used to discuss, not just what's going well, but also what can be improved.If you are the management who’s organising this, then it's a great possibility to get the pulse  of your employees' engagement. You’re also sending out a message to all the employees that you take their welfare very seriously. Whatever you do, always keep in mind the importance of keeping a team building as inclusive as possible.

Prioritize Inclusivity

Across the board, all your employees will have their own personalities and they will have a great deal of diversity.  But with people working in different environments to do their jobs, it's important that they are all able to still maintain that work ethic and professionalism. While some may be trying to balance a family and work life, and others are working alone in a small studio space, when it comes to putting them all together for a team building, then there are some factors you should take note of which include family life, socialization styles,  chosen methods of communication, time zones, and seniority. 

If you're going to be putting on a team building for your employees, then please make sure that you schedule the activity well in advance. This will allow those who are living at home with other obligations, especially family or small children, to be able to make time. Keep in mind that though some hours of the day, such as lunchtime, may be more suitable and practical for a number of employees, it may not be so convenient for others, especially those at home with children.

Get Creative

With many elements of business, whether marketing or finance, there will always be an idea that the best policy is to play things safe. But a team building exercise should be the exact opposite. Team building is not about the cringe of asking people fun facts about themselves. That's not going to be engaging or useful to your company in any way whatsoever. Then there’s the fact that they have probably been asked to perform this type of activity 100 x before by their management or HR.

And that's why creativity is so important. Think about the culture that makes the company you work for so unique. Then think about how you can push those boundaries. Finally, you can test to see how this all plays out over a conference app such as Zoom. Whatever you choose to do, you'll find that laughter is always the best medicine. To that end, do something light and fulfilling that everyone can be involved in and leave in a happier mood from when they began. 

Track Your Impact

As you proceed with your team building for remote employees it's important that you remain flexible. This will allow you to refine and adjust your programme on the fly. Do you make sure that all employee voices can be heard. And that you note their suggestions for refining the program to be better. Remember that the more fully proactive you are when it comes to responding to employees' opinions, the better your team building experience will be. Finally, we suggest that there's no harm in making a remote team building a weekly event. Providing it's irreverent, fun and only slightly competitive, then it makes a great way to finish the week on a Friday afternoon.