Whether you have an in-house team, remote employees, or a mix of the two, there’s no denying that seamless teamwork can boost productivity, accelerate growth, and increase retention.
97% of employees and employers alike believe that teamwork affects the outcome of a project and leads to a strong sense of community.
Fortunately, even remote teams can benefit from these positives with the use of video conferencing software and communication apps.
A workplace made up of productive fun and games can turn any team into a powerhouse, but you need the right tools to make it happen. Here are 8 fun ways to make your remote team more productive.
It’s common for co-workers to talk about what they did during their off-hours, but that may not happen in your remote work environment. If it does, the conversation may be tied with a meeting or discussions about work-related topics, which could discourage a casual back and forth.
While you may need to combine a “good news” conversation with work sometimes, it should be an exception rather than a rule. Instead, employers should encourage a separate channel (like a Zoom room or Slack channel) where employees can talk about their interests or weekends freely.
Your employees should start every work day off by celebrating small personal successes, like getting their toddler to sleep in 30 minutes, to establish a positive atmosphere that continues throughout the day.
Friendly work-based competitions are rarely friendly, especially if they involve bonuses or the potential for promotions. Well-known real estate companies like Keller Williams do away with this problem by encouraging teamwork instead of competition, because it improves productivity across the board.
Sometimes it’s better to remove work competition altogether in favour of friendly, off-site challenges. For example, your team could commit to walking 500 steps a day or jogging once a week. Not only does this improve overall health, but it keeps the team motivated.
Your employees want to work for employers that facilitate their growth, be it personal or professional. Setting up non-mandatory, paid workshops or classes can show you’re invested in helping your employees grow with your company. Investing in your team’s growth decreases employee churn.
We build the most important parts of our workplace relationships outside of the office because we don’t feel pressured to cut conversations short.
We’re already off to a good start by adding employee-specific channels, but we can take it a step further by removing work from the picture.
Remote co-workers can’t meet up for a coffee date in person, but they can meet over the internet. If you want to encourage your employees to host virtual hangouts, ask them to create a poll to see if there’s interest, then give them the technology to make the meet-up happen.
Sure, you could play classic icebreakers like “Two Truths, One Lie” or “X or Y” to bring your team closer together, but why not try something different? At Hi5, we have several stimulating puzzle games for work to help your team learn about each other and the company.
On of the Hi5 Games, Super Cards 🦸, specifically involves answering a non-intrusive quiz that reveals your “Super Powers” or strengths, which are then used in another quiz where your co-workers try to guess each others’ answers. Every correct reply builds your card collection, which you need to complete to win.
Even if you don’t win, you’ll learn more about your co-workers’ strengths and how they would respond in challenging situations. These answers will also help you build better teams for projects.
Taking breaks make us more productive, so asking your employees to take daily community lunches is essential. You could also consider paying for healthy meals to be delivered to your remote team members once in a while.
43% of WFH employees skip meals at least once a week, and 60% feel guilty for taking breaks.
Building a virtual team is easier than it’s ever been, thanks to apps like Hi5, Strava, Donut for Slack, Trivia, and more. These virtual experiences mimic office banter, facilitate employee recognition, keep your teams organised, and create real, long-lasting human connections.
Apps like Gather take the virtual team experience to a whole other level by creating a digital office where team avatars can move around and interact. With Gather, co-workers could “bump” into each other on their way to events and chat in real-time, which organically connects teams in the same it would in an office space.
After a long week, most of your team members want to relax and talk over a cold beverage or tasty meal, so why not do it together? You can host this event as the last thing you’ll do on a Friday, as it kicks off the weekend in a positive way and encourages the team to socialise.
Jessica Perkins helps ambitious SaaS companies with growth hacking initiatives to help rapidly scale their inbound leads and customer base. She specialises in content marketing, SEO and paid advertising.
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