The advent of telecommuting and remote workers has allowed many people to do their jobs anywhere they want, even in the comforts of their homes.
But while this is a welcomed development, it does introduce a challenge for virtual team engagement.
With members not seeing each other face to face, there is a risk of having weaker interpersonal connections. This could affect the team’s overall performance significantly.
How then can the gap be closed and foster tighter remote work relationships?
Virtual Team Engagement Tips That Will Bring Everyone Together
Each remote team is built differently, with individual members having their own quirks. Overcoming these differences will be the key to successful virtual team engagement. The following tips will help team leaders in managing remote teams more effectively.
Have the right tools for remote employee collaboration
While technology has made remote work possible, it can also help to close the gap between separated workers. There are a variety of teleconferencing, messaging apps, and software teams can take advantage of for this purpose.
Video and chat apps are some of the first tools you should consider getting. You will use these for official correspondence and more personal communications with team members.
Some of the popular apps you want to consider adding to your remote team’s toolbox include:
🖥️ Zoom
- Lots of integrated collaboration functions.
- Video recording feature for future references
💻 Google Meet
- Integrates into Google’s online collaboration suite
- Offers live captioning for streams
🖥️ Microsoft Teams
- Whiteboard space for presentations
- AI assistant
Each of these options work for general communication needs. But if the team requires a more specific toolset, you should consider one that best matches these needs.
Encourage feedback for remote worker engagement
Good communication tools already ensure that feedback can happen. But you still need to encourage your team to be more open about sending such feedback. Use quick feedback tools like Mentimeter to get a good grasp of your team’s sentiments
These tools feature anonymous submissions that will ease employee worries about confidentiality. On the other hand, these tools also provide live results, letting you see team sentiment in real time.
Beyond these tools, you should also encourage face to face feedback. Organize regular town hall sessions where employees can give their thoughts about the company. You should also encourage informal exchanges. These give team members greater freedom in expressing their ideas and sharing them with others.
RELATED: A Remote Team Feedback Loop
Set regular video meetings
The above sharing and feedback sessions are already a great form of virtual team engagement. But you still need to create more points of engagement for your team. And, surprisingly, company meetings can be such great opportunities.
Weekly meetings are a great place to start. Here, you don’t just limit these meetings to work-related stuff.
Instead, you can make these into a chance for your members to talk about themselves for a bit. Questions such as what they did last weekend can help break the ice and be a prelude for more meaningful conversations.
For instance, online repository platform GitLab has turned such video call meetings into so-called virtual coffee breaks. Team members can randomly call each other and have a casual chat. The company says that this is an effective way for them to develop a more comfortable working environment for their team.
At the end of the meeting, encourage team members to talk about the things that they might have thought about during the session.
This helps everybody become more attentive to the meeting since they are allowed to share their knowledge.
Create fun traditions for your remote workers
Creating fun company traditions is another great way to strengthen your remote work culture. By encouraging your team to take part in these traditions, you get them to feel more a part of the team.
But to get there, you need to think out of the box for these traditions.
Playing online computer games is one such tradition to explore. Studies show that having a 45 minute gaming session can boost productivity by 20%.
To avoid interrupting your work, opt for mobile games everyone can play on their phones. Do this video game breaks once or twice throughout the day to serve as stress relievers.
Having a virtual birthday celebration for members is another fun tradition you can establish. This can be as simple as setting up a video chat session where everyone greets the birthday celebrant online. And if you and your team are feeling generous, you can pitch in to buy them gifts online and have these shipped to their homes.
Another essential tradition we recommend having is recognizing team members. Instead of the usual Employee of the month awards, think of fun categories like:
🏅 Customer Satisfaction Star: For the the best performing service agents
🏅 Smooth Sailing Award: The remote team that managed to overcome challenges
🏅 The Email Vigilante Award: The person who responds the most to emails
Tailor these awards to your company’s actual work so recipients will feel that their efforts are actually recognized..
Additionally, encourage members to submit their praises for their peers who they think have done a great job or who have helped them in one way or another towards achieving their goals.
RELATED: Icebreaker Activities To Engage Your Virtual Team
Get together for remote workers
Organize periodical get-together so team members can interact face to face. Studies show that holding these routine face to face meetings can help teams generate 15-20% more ideas. This helps greatly in maintaining the team’s productivity even if they remain remote.
Some activities you can use for building remote team relationships include:
🍳 Cookoffs
🖌️ Arts and crafts classes (painting, pottery, etc.)
🏃 Scavenger hunts and other interactive team games
🍛Themed potlucks
These activities not only help ease the pressure from work but also encourage your team members to bond together in a more fun manner.
You can also organize a yearly retreat for the whole team. Make these retreats be more than just about relaxation. Great virtual team bonding activities to explore during such retreats include:
👍 Going to a remote place
👍 No tech day for all teams
👍 A city-wide tour
👍 Attending seminars on different topics (as suggested by the team)
👍 Volunteering
Since these retreats last a few days, you want to make sure that your team has an engaging itinerary for everyone. Involve the team in the planning so that the activities would fit them better.
For team members who might not be able to make it to the retreats, give them ways to participate. Video patches are a great way to help them join the fun. You can also bring back materials and souvenirs that will make them feel like they were there.
Keep Connecting Remote Workers And Going Towards Success
Ensuring that your remote team can successfully deliver results is a vital part of business success. But to achieve that, you need to get them working together.
These remote team building strategies will help you make that happen. It all starts with making it easier for them to share their thoughts and concerns. And by creating a more engaging experience for them, you bring them together even closer.
Virtua Solutions believes in this same remote team communication tips. We have crafted our own awesome employee experience that keeps our remote teams going. And that means big for our clients as they can expect great service from every team member from Virtua.