Communication and teamwork in your company is important. It improves employee morale and wellbeing, boosts collaboration among employees, encourages team members to discuss their creative ideas and drives improved productivity.
Gallup reports in “The State of the American Workplace” that engaged employees are more likely to improve customer relationships, with a resulting 20 percent increase in sales. When your employees are engaged, excited and passionate about their jobs, it will shine through in the work they do.
So, what do you do when your entire workforce, or at least a large portion of it, has begun to work remotely - making communication more difficult? That’s where hosting a virtual team building event can greatly benefit your organization.
What is a virtual team building event?
A virtual team building event is similar to a team building activity in that it’s designed to give your employees a chance to connect with colleagues on both a professional and personal level. The only difference is that a virtual team building activity is performed over the internet.
Since your remote employees aren’t able to communicate with each other in the office, a virtual team building event is an exciting activity that helps your company to build stronger working relationships among remote teams.
How will my employees benefit?
In its 2018 State of Remote Work report, Buffer found that loneliness was the biggest downside for 21 percent of remote workers, and it ranked as one of the reasons that made them more likely to quit their job. That’s because many workers feel disconnected from the organization they work for, and the team members they work with.
That doesn’t have to be the case. In fact, virtual team building events will help replace the various forms of in-person communication that these remote workers would be experiencing if they were located in an office.
Here are just a few ways in which hosting regularly virtual team building events will benefit both your organization, as well as your employees:
1 - Encourage communication between team members
When working remotely it can be easy for employees to fall into the trap of working in silos, without communicating or collaborating with team members. This has a negative impact on employees, and can result in feelings of loneliness that impact the quality of work they are producing.
Virtual team building events, however, give employees the change to interact with their peers just as they would in the office. This communication encourages them to talk to each other more regularly when working from home, and, in turn, improves collaboration and productivity.
2 - Positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement when working in the office is fairly easy, you can bring in food, go for an after-work drink, take your team out for lunch or hold meetings where you praise good work. This becomes far harder when your team is working from home.
You can use fun virtual team building activities to give your employees something to look forward to, and reward them for the hard work they have put into a particular project or piece of work.
3 - Drive employee creativity
Creativity is an essential element of any successful organization. It helps to drive innovative solutions, fosters new ideas within your company and can lead to improved revenue generation. Workers stuck at home, however, can often lose the creative spark that you hired them for in the first place.
By bringing your remote employees together for a virtual team building event, you will encourage your team members to bounce ideas off each other and come up with new exciting ideas just as they would in the office. This will continue into their day-to-day communications.
4 - Give employees a motivation boost
If your remote employees are missing their colleagues and office life, it’s possible they may be running low on motivation. This will have a negative impact on their work. By giving them something to look forward to through a virtual team building event, you’ll motivate them to remember just how passionate they are about your brand and the work they do.
5 - Remind your employees they are part of a team
When working from home, employees will complete their work but they can often forget about the overall objective they are trying to accomplish. By bringing your team together for an event and reminding them that they are all crucial cogs in a well-oiled machine, you’ll remind them just how important the work they do is for the company. In turn, this will lead to improved productivity, better collaboration and stronger team morale.
How can I host a virtual team building event?
Looking to host your very own virtual team building event? You’ve come to the right place. Here at Teambonders we offer a wide range of fun and collaborative virtual events that are tailor-made for your company’s unique needs.
Our virtual team building events include everything from popular game shows, wellness exercises that help reduce stress, treasure hunts, quizzes, keynote speakers, charity programs and much more. Simply contact our team of world-class event creators to learn more.