Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their very own.
A lot of today’s hiring managers and team leads have adapted to the most recent trend of today’s modern workforce — distant work! And since hiring a distant workforce widens the hiring pool, increases worker retention and results in higher cost savings, working from house is here to stay.
Nonetheless, as distant work stays the norm, managers have to reposition themselves and commit intentionally to constructing team culture.
Compared to leading an in-person team, leading a distant team comes with a different, unique set of priorities and areas of focus. Even many experienced managers need assistance ensuring their employees have a positive, productive working environment. Here, we’ll outline some examples of events and exercises that may make sure that you provide a strong, vibrant team culture in today’s distant work world.
Related: The 7 Essential Elements of a Thriving Distant Company Culture
The importance of team culture
Even before offices made a significant shift to distant workforces, many managers struggled with how to foster a positive team culture in an in-person office environment. Those struggles only became more apparent when learning how to construct team ethics in a distant workplace.
A positive team culture leads to happier employees. This may increasingly result in increased productivity over the long term. Because a positive work environment leads to things like friendships and increased levels of support between coworkers, you are more likely to see lower turnover rates and better worker retention rates if you emphasize team culture.
Positive team cultures also reduce levels of stress and anxiety amongst employees. With a less stressful environment, your expert employees are more likely to remain along with your company long-term. Moreover, they’ll share their positive experiences as an worker. As this word-of-mouth spreads, your positive team culture may eventually result in your corporation becoming a sought-after place to work.
As well as to these hiring and personnel advantages, positive team cultures correlate directly with profitability. You would possibly engage in a likelihood discussion with a coworker over the water cooler or in the breakroom — leading to opportunities, collaborations and innovations that otherwise may not have happened.
Working in a distant environment doesn’t suggest these advantages go away — it simply gives you the chance to create unique virtual spaces for these encounters and opportunities.
Are you excited to construct a great team culture but unsure where to start since you lead a distant team? Listed here are a number of the easiest and most successful team-building activities:
Host virtual blissful hours
Comfortable hours are easy opportunities on your employees to chill out together. For an hour, your team can come together to chat outside of the standard virtual meeting environment.
And don’t fret — a remote-work blissful hour doesn’t require alcohol! Alternatively, you’ll be able to send employees gift cards to order dinner or snacks to recreate the identical atmosphere as an in-person blissful hour. In the course of the blissful hour, you are free to plan every kind of fun activities, like collaborative online games, or in case your team members are up to it, certainly one of them can lead an activity they’re keen about, like baking or a craft.
Moreover, you do not have to limit blissful hours or other activities to just your team. Be at liberty to reach out to other managers and arrange an inter-team blissful hour. The more the merrier!
Related: 5 Ways to Enhance Distant Company Culture and Build a Team That Thrives Together or Apart
Plan and host team-building events
You’ll be able to put together a more structured event should you’d like a change of pace from a more relaxed blissful hour.
Some events you may host include:
-
Trivia
-
Murder mystery games
-
Plant-potting
-
Virtual escape rooms
Further, structured events include their very own advantages — consider all the coordination and teamwork you will need to successfully solve a murder mystery or escape a virtual room! A virtual team-building event might be a possibility for workers to flex their problem-solving and inventive skills outside of labor while still constructing relationships with their coworkers.
Encourage managers to hold office hours
Whether an worker is recent or they have been working at your organization for years, they’d likely jump at the chance to pick your brain, ask questions and pitch ideas.
Create a space for workers to try this by establishing “office hours” that any worker can use to pop in for a quick query. It’s a more casual commitment than a direct meeting, so more employees will feel comfortable making the most of the chance, nevertheless it provides more structure than a spur-of-the-moment phone call.
Related: 5 Ways to Build Team Culture in a Distant World
Plan regular in-person team meetups
For some managers and firms, there is not any substitute for in-person communication and interaction. For teams which are scattered across the country, meaning just one thing — coordinating a team meetup!
You’ll be able to approach team meetups in a variety of how. Do you wish to have them once per yr, per quarter, and on your individual schedule? Further, do you wish to have your meetup at a central location like your organization’s headquarters, or do you wish to rent out a larger space elsewhere?
And once your meetup is already in the works, you have got a few more options. You’ll be able to select from any variety of events to allow teams to bond once they’re together, from museum trips to hikes and more.
Overall, putting more effort into team constructing leads to higher productivity, elevates the workplace experience and results in a higher return on investment on your company. That does not change simply because your team works from home!
Take the time to nurture your team through distant team constructing, and you will see astronomical results.