Team bonding is a crucial part of making sure that your remote employees really feel like part of the team. Whether you’ve chosen to offer work from home as an option for all your employees or you only have some employees who work from home, you should always consider methods to make them feel like a team. Here are some team bonding ideas that you might want to put into play for your remote employees.
Icebreaker Games
An icebreaker game may seem sort of cliché, but it’s a very effective way to maximize bonding between people. When you know a little bit more about your team members, you’re more likely to feel that bond between them. Consider setting up an “icebreaker of the month” around the first week of each month. Choose a question like, “What is your favourite movie from the past year?” that your employees can answer fairly easily.
Scavenger Hunts
A scavenger hunt is traditionally something that you would have in the office, but it’s completely possible to set up a scavenger hunt with employees who are working from home. To make this option better for your employees without cutting into work time, you might want to make a remote scavenger hunt more like a “show and tell,” where you tell employees one type of item and have them all bring it to a video or phone conference.
Speed Networking
This is a bit like a “speed dating” concept. Essentially, you set up multiple video conference calls. For example, it can be a 60-minute event with four 15-minute sessions. Each person talks to someone for 15 minutes, then chat with another person after the 15 minutes is up. Encourage thinking of it as a “coffee break” and suggest that people make their favourite drink.
Online Games
There are all sorts of online games that offer options for text and video chat. A multiplayer video game could be a great way to build the team experience; you might decide that you want to play an online game once a month to make sure you get experience in communicating during an informal event that you can transfer into communication during formal events. You might want to invite employees to vote on favourite games so that they feel like they have options for choice.
Virtual Bake-Off or Cook-Off
A virtual bake-off or cook-off allows your employees to show off their baking or cooking skills. It’s especially good during the holidays, as cooking and baking tend to be some of the things that people do more of during Thanksgiving and Christmas. You don’t even have to have a people video conference in; just invite them to send in pictures to other workers during a weekly phone conference.
Conclusion
Team bonding for remote employees is an important part of making sure that all your employees are truly part of the team. If you want to make sure that your employees feel like they’re an important member of your team, you should definitely ensure that you’re engaging in team-building activities, especially for remote employees. These are just a few of the things you could do to increase team bonding with little to no trouble.