Five Remote Team Bonding Activities You Can Do with Communication Tools
As much as the remote working model has its pros, it has its cons. And isolation is one of the most common challenges that plague remote employees.
One study suggests that businesses should take extra measures to organize activities that increase employee trust and loyalty. One way to achieve this is through remote team bonding activities.
The right activities and communication tools will be effective in reducing problems associated with people who work outside the office environment. Examples of such challenges include:
Difficulty in forming social bonds
Sadness due to inability to physically interact with others.
loneliness and isolation
Reduced overall productivity
Slow business growth
You probably recognize these symptoms in your staff and are eager to cure them of their ailments.
Some Benefits of Team Bonding Activities
There are several benefits that businesses can derive when they expose their remote employees to team bonding activities like:
Increase in productivity
Conflict resolution
Prevention of loneliness
Boost in Creativity
Increase in employee morale
Communication enhancement
Discovery of new or hidden talents
Many team-bonding activities can keep remote workers excited about working with fellow workers even while alone.
With the remote communication tools, you can have as many successful team bonding activities as you need.
In this article, we have listed five most effective remote team bonding activities that will work for your workforce.
Ice Breaker Activities
If you are a careful observer, you would have noticed how tense and awkward remote meetings can be, especially when team members are unfamiliar with each other.
You can employ ice breaker activities to break the tension and get remote team members to get connected.
One good ice breaker activity is to ask team members fun questions and get everyone talking and bonding instantaneously.
To get the most out of this bonding activity, you must be creative with the questions you ask. It must be simple but open-ended questions to elicit deep responses. When people talk about what they care about, they bond with others in similar situations.
Virtual Office Games
Although some business owners may sniff at the thought of their employees playing games, it can help increase employee productivity and bonding.
Some managers have discovered that playing games together can increase the bond between workers and improve their critical thinking abilities.
In an office environment, workers can satisfy the need to socialize by talking to other people around them. For remote workers, however, the situation is unique. Many remote employees find it hard to interact with others while working.
But a remote office online game is a good way for virtual team members to relax and bond with each other. They can solve an online jigsaw puzzle together, or compare solitaire scores to create friendly competition.
Games offer opportunities for workers to escape momentarily from the stress that builds up while performing their official tasks.
Online Coffee/Lunch
One thing that makes working in a physical office enjoyable is the perks sometimes provided by the management.
Perks can motivate remote workers and also help them socialize and increase the bond among them.
An online coffee/lunch session is a bonding activity that can allow remote workers the chance to experience some office perks.
Businesses with this bonding activity give their remote workers bonuses and encourage them to go out for a coffee or lunch break in a shop or restaurant of their choice. The employees can send and share live videos or pictures of themselves with other workers.
Another popular way of having an online coffee/lunch with your remote team is to convene an occasional virtual meeting with the workers.
Workers will join the virtual meeting from their favorite restaurants or coffee shops. This way, the remote team members will have time to interact with coworkers in a relaxed manner.
Entertainment Night
Organizing an entertainment night for your remote workers from time to time is a great way to strengthen the bond among them.
There are many thoughtful ways to entertain your workers. For example, nothing is as relaxing as finding time to watch movies, or live video events remotely with members of your team.
One good thing about watching movies together is that you hear and see different perspectives and details about the flicks.
The relaxed atmosphere of a movie night where remote team employees can joke with one another is a good bonding exercise.
Apart from movies, having a virtual comedy night where a comedian will entertain your remote workers will create a deep bond among them.
Businesses can host a remote team bonding activity on communication tools like Google Meet, Zoom or any Zoom alternative.
If your company cannot afford to hire a stand-up comedian, you can ask every remote team member to share their favorite jokes with others.
An entertainment night is also an excellent opportunity to get creative and show your team a product demo video of your latest products and services. Your team members’ reactions and critiques can offer insights into how to improve the video.
Remote Dance Party
Many studies have documented the health benefits of regular dancing, like:
Physical fitness
Cardiovascular health
Improved flexibility and posture
Aerobic fitness
Firm muscles and strong bones
Apart from the health benefits, dancing can also boost your mental health, especially when you do it with other people.
Dancing as a remote bonding exercise has the power to bring people closer to each other. Some studies show that dancing fosters social bonding. During dancing, people loosen themselves and merge with the group.
Organizing a remote dance party is easy. You need to play music and get your team members to log in to their calls from different locations.
To successfully organize a remote dance party, you must schedule the time for the dance and how long the party will last.
You can decide to schedule the dance for a couple of minutes each day or hold it for a longer time at the end of the week. The choice depends on your peculiar circumstances. Dancing is a fun activity and also an excellent way to encourage people to communicate with each other.
Wrapping things up
Social isolation has become one of the worst challenges facing remote teams, as many workers struggle with loneliness.
Feeling isolated can have negative consequences both for the individual remote employees and the business organization.
While employees working in a physical environment can interact with others, remote workers do not have that luxury.
But thanks to technology, remote employees can now stay connected with fellow workers through various communication channels.
By implementing some of the remote bonding activities in this article, managers can help their employees stay connected and productive.
Andreyana Kulina is a Digital Marketing Specialist at Brosix, specializing in Content marketing and outreach strategies. Besides her passion for digital marketing, she likes hiking and mountain-biking.