Virtual team building events have seen an explosion in popularity over the past year, with an increasing number of organizations making the transition to long-term work-from-home (WFH) policies.
With an increasing number of employees working remotely, the need for companies to implement measures that bring their colleagues together and improve team engagement is becoming more important than ever before.
That’s why many organizations have turned to virtual team building events.
Virtual team building programs can help your company address some of the common challenges associated with remote work, such as a lack of communication, work-from-home burnout or social isolation.
According to a study from Buffer, The 2020 State of Remote Work, 20 percent of virtual teams find it difficult to collaborate with their colleagues and 12 percent 12 percent of remote workers say that they are challenged by the distractions in their homes.
On top of that, 10 percent of virtual workers were also found to struggle in collaborating with their remote teams in different time zones.
As we mentioned, companies are addressing these challenges by investing in virtual team building programs. The benefits of virtual team building include, but are not limited to:
- Improving communication within remote teams.
- Build, and maintain, better relationships between team members.
- Ensure employees are engaged with your company, and their team, when working from home.
- Driving better collaboration between WFH employees.
- Ensure remote workers feel included, and a valuable part of the team.
- Giving employees a motivation boost.
- And much more!
With that in mind, how can your organization plan its very own virtual team building event? We've created a five-step guide to do just that:
#1 - Create a timeline for planning your event
The first step of planning a virtual team building event is to decide a date and time for your event, and then work backwards from there. Choose a date that gives you enough time to plan your event, but don’t start building a buzz about it within your team or your employees will soon forget about it.
The good news for a virtual event is that while there’s still a lot to organize, there are a lot less logistics to consider. You don’t need to get your employees all to one physical location, you don’t need to think about catering and you don’t need to book a venue. All you need is a stable communication platform and a great idea.
#2 - Determine your virtual team building budget
How much are you looking to spend on your virtual team building event? This will have a huge impact on what your business plans. Virtual team building events can be a small team getting together for a lunch on Zoom, or a large organization-wide event with a well-thought-out virtual activity.
Your budget will decide which one of these events your host, but so will your objectives. Let’s discuss that in more detail in step three.
#3 - Decide what benefits you want to achieve with your event
When planning your virtual team building event, it’s important to first determine what you want to achieve from hosting your event. Do you want to improve communication, do you want to build team relationships or are you just looking to host an exciting and fun activity that improves team engagement?
Something things you may want to achieve from your virtual team building program could include:
- Having fun, and boosting remote employee motivation.
- Building team relationships.
- Strengthening communication and collaboration.
- Increasing team morale.
What team building activity you choose to plan will depend on what you want to achieve.
#4 - Pick a virtual team building event
Now that you have a date, you know what your budget is and you know exactly what you want to achieve by hosting the event, it’s time for the fun part - choosing what type of virtual team building activity you’ll host.
The team building event that works best for you could be anything from a charity fundraising event, a health and wellness activity, an exciting virtual quiz or even a keynote speaker. There’s a huge amount of options for you to plan - be creative and have fun with it.
#5 - Get your team prepared for the virtual event!
Once your event is planned and you have coordinated all of the logistics associated with it, it’s time to get your team excited for the event. Build a buzz for your virtual team building event sending out calendar invites, creating a live countdown and other promotions that get your team excited.
Don’t want to plan a virtual team building event yourself? Teambonders has a range of ready-made virtual team building programs that can be customized for the specific requirements of your business.
Want to learn more about our virtual team building events? Contact teambonders today. We would love to answer any questions that you may have, and plan an exciting event for your team!
