The COVID-19 pandemic had undeniable effects on the role of HR, the traditional office, and several other aspects of our professional life. Here, on the IseeQ Blog, we already covered many of these changes, to prepare our clients and readers for the new, post-pandemic era of company culture.
Now that we feel like this era arrived and we think remote (or at least hybrid) working is the future we are diving into the topic of building team cohesion in remote teams. Yes, we see how many company leaders are still concerned about not being able to keep their teams together without the water cooler talks in the office. There is no need to worry though, we promise there are several ways of creating remote team chemistry! Read this article to learn more about them!
When it comes to managing an effective team, constant communication is a must. It is the same with virtual teams. Most companies have their online communication platforms (Slack, Discord, Teams, etc). Going remote only requires them to set up some new channels for new communication purposes.
To ensure easy and effective communication between co-workers, leaders should provide separate channels for different topics. The exact number and type of channels may differ for each business. However, there are a few things that everyone should cover, no matter what:
Every company needs a channel where they can communicate information, goals, and progress. These announcements or posts from the leadership team can go to this channel. Only giving posting permission to certain people can ensure that the most important news and updates won't get lost in the noise.
There should be at least one separate channel for work-related communication between employees. This channel is for urgent information exchange about projects, tasks, or anything else. Depending on the organization’s structure or size, most companies might need more of these formal productivity-boosting channels.
These are likely the most important channels when it comes to keeping the team spirit strong. Create platforms for employees where they can chat or share pictures of their everyday “remote life”. It should be a task for leaders and managers to bring the chat to life with active posting at the early stage. Believe us though, after a short while even introverts and new hires will join the conversation and become an active part of the community!
Sharing information and chatting in company channels is good, but remote teams need more touchpoints to feel close to each other. That's why the next step is creating a voice and video channel. This enables colleagues to organize meetings whether those are formal or coffee break chats.
Of course, keeping teams well informed is a priority, but in itself, it’s not enough for long-term employee engagement. Informal relationships are as important as formal communication when it comes to keeping employees motivated and committed. This means setting up a few channels for chatting in itself is not enough to build the desired team cohesion
But how to plan teambuilding events for a remote team?
There are two teambuilding types when it comes to keeping workers happy and engaged to begin with. Online and offline.
Of course, for a remote team (especially when we are talking about global remote) online activities are way easier to attend to, so let us bring examples for these.
We mentioned how we use voice or video channels to spend our coffee breaks with colleagues. This method works with lunches and one on one sessions too. Leaders should arrange these short meetings first with their members since introverted employees are less likely to invite their coworkers to these talks. This way nobody will be left out.
Besides the classic video call lunches and drinks, we recommend company leaders to introduce gaming sessions to their teams. Here at the IseeQ team, we played Skribbl, held a Battleship and Tic tac toe tournament, tried Among Us, and Jackbox games but the list of potential games to try is endless!
Keeping a remote team engaged might be less straightforward than planning a pizza night for an on-site team once in a while. It doesn't mean that it's hard though. We believe not spending hours commuting is the future of working, so it’s worth a try!
