Last year remote work was considered the future, now it’s the present. The future of work has arrived and it can bring a huge range of benefits to your organization. Building a team that works from home encourages flexibility, happier employees, increased engagement, more efficient use of time, higher quality of work, improved productivity and a huge number of other benefits.
Just because your team isn’t located in the same room, doesn’t mean they can’t communicate and collaborate on projects effectively. It does mean, however, that your company needs to take a different approach to team building.
A study by Harvard Business Review found that close work friendships increase employee satisfaction by 50 percent, and that people with a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be fully engaged in their work.
Ensuring you have a strong team is crucial for the success of your business, and you need to take extra effort when those employees work from home.
Employees who work together in an office will naturally build relationships through face-to-face interactions. Remote teams do not have this benefit, and your company needs to facilitate these interactions by setting up virtual team bonding sessions.
That’s where virtual team building events can help.
What is virtual team building?
Virtual team building events are a way of using today’s innovative video and audio technologies to bring your remote team together for regular bonding events when they can’t physically be together in an office.
Virtual team building comes in many forms, but the truly effective programs are designed specifically to make employees forget that they’re not sitting in the same location. Teambonders, for example, has designed a range of virtual events for the unique needs of your business, including:
- Charity events
- Quiz games
- Employee health and wellbeing events
- Professional development events
Much like a regular team building event without being located in the same physical space, these events help to create meaningful relationships between your remote employees that empowers them to be more productive and happy while working from home.
Things to keep in mind when organizing your virtual team building event
Virtual team building events are one of the best ways to boost your remote employees productivity, engagement, happiness, communication and loyalty - but before you dive in and organize your event, there are some factors you need to think about first to maximize your return on investment (ROI).
Teambonders has listed the top five questions you need to ask before organizing your virtual team building event:
#1 - Who will be attending the event?
Depending how large your organization is, the first think you’ll want to ask is how many employees will be attending the event. Do you want your entire organization to attend the virtual team building session, or do you want to strategically choose smaller teams so you can focus on building specific relationships?
#2 - What do you want to accomplish?
To maximize your return on investment for a virtual team building event, you need to set some clear expectations about what you want to achieve. Do you want to improve employee collaboration, do you want to strengthen peer relationships or do you want to help your employees develop their careers in a fun atmosphere? This will have an impact on the type of event that you end up hosting.
#3 - What’s your budget?
Before planning your event, it’s important to have an accurate idea of the available budget and to get that figure approved by your senior management team. This will ensure there’s no last minute cancellations or issues when your senior management team suddenly realizes that you're spending too much on the event. Keep in mind that a virtual team building event will lead to higher productivity, efficient work processes and more loyal employees, so you will see this budget returned over time.
#4 - Will your team enjoy, and learn something from, the event?
Forcing employees to attend a team building event that they don’t want to will only end up having a negative impact. You need to host a virtual team building event that your employees will have fun participating in, and also learn something from. Gathering feedback from your employees with a survey can help you host an event that’s beneficial for everyone.
#5 - Are you going to organize the event yourself or use an outsourced expert?
Organizing a team building event is complicated, especially when it’s done entirely online. That’s why it’s best to outsource your virtual team building event to a professional facilitator like Teambonders. A professional outsourced company will find out your company’s unique objectives, and organize the event accordingly to make sure your business achieves them.
Want to learn more about virtual team building, how it can benefit your company and how Teambonders can set up an event that’s designed for the unique needs of your organization? Contact our team of experts today.
