Team Building.. Remotely!

It’s a strange time for the traditional workplace. Some offices are beginning to be back in full force, some have partial teams returning from furlough or recovering from redundancies and for many remote working remains on the cards for the foreseeable. So how do we combine a physically fractured workforce and keeping the team spirit alive?

We’ve shared the importance of team building before (catch our first blog post on it here) and with staff burn out and anxieties of staff recorded at an all-time high following lockdown, it feels more important than ever to ensure we’re offering staff a supportive, friendly and fun environment to work in – even if that is virtually.

Here at Noble Futures, we make no disguise of our love of food and more often than not this features in our team reunions, so this was the clear winner for bi-annual team night recently – a company-wide virtual pizza and facewine evening. But we’ve been thinking of other ways that you could help to keep the team engaged and having fun together:

Virtual Escape Rooms:

There have been a surge in online escape room puzzles since lockdown began, there are popular ones such as Trapped in the Web, themed ones like this Harry Potter one or even ones set up from physical escape room companies whilst they wait for reopening like this one here from EscapeLive. These brilliant puzzles offer some fun but also encourage the best problem solving skills and team work to solve!

Online Group Training:

We’ve used this one ourselves at Noble Futures and have taken the time to engage in some group training and coaching. This is a great option especially if you are a company who perhaps still has staff on furlough, as this is an approved activity to uptake during the scheme. Group training offers camaraderie as the team all learns something new together, push their skill sets further or help see strengths and weaknesses in their team mates that they can help encourage or support.

Team Virtual Cooking or Cocktail Master Class:

Send out a recipe/drinks list or even a recipe box in advance to all staff joining in online. You could always start by setting the video call up as you all cook along and try out the new methods, or simply log in when it’s time to taste and review your new dish or drink!  Food has always been a fantastic bonding experience but did you know that cooking together is also reported to significantly improve relationships, allow easy flows of conversation and give a distraction that enables those involved to enjoy the moment and stop thinking on the stresses of daily life and work.

Group Quizzes or Games:

We know the weekly zoom quiz night might have lost it’s novelty since it soared to popularity in March but there are plenty of other game options for you to still enjoy as a group. Traditional games such as Pictionary are still easily played over video but there are also some great digital versions. You can even do it as a team charity night with offerings like these ‘Whodunit’ and ‘Board Games Night’ available for a small donation from Macmillan Cancer Support

Virtual Tea Breaks:

Keeping the team spirit alive doesn’t always need to be a grand gesture or big plan, even small connections like a weekly tea break together to sit and talk about life outside of work might help, or allocating time before or after weekly catch ups to allow the team to have a less formal conversation and catch up can all add up in building team bonding.