It would be an understatement to say the last nine months has changed the way we work. For many remote working was an entirely new concept, yet here we are nearing the end of 2020 piloting through a whole new world of work.
As countless studies highlight, we’re feeling less connected with our co-workers and company culture than ever which is impacting our mental health. Companies are now tasked with consciously encouraging collaboration and communication amongst employees working remotely.
The seemingly inconsequential (and often random) interactions with colleagues, are in fact what bonds relationships and builds tight-knitted teams. Without a physical space for these informal collisions to happen organically, it becomes all the more important to create opportunities for people to come together in a virtual setting.
Leading the way, brands such as Salesforce, Notion and Dropbox are pivoting with innovative tools and solutions to bring people together, as a way to maintain and exchange casual conversations. Slack’s Hallway even drops people into a 10 min chat with a colleague allowing for casual exchanges on unrelated work matters.
Forming part of our new ‘Through the Lens’ series which asks specialists their perspectives on new working norms, we recently chatted with Tracy Chen Founder of Snack. Snack is a digital tool for spontaneous conversations and icebreakers, so they understand a thing or two about the importance of virtual team building and getting it right.
Q: What has the shift in the nations working habits highlighted?
A: With video call fatigue rampant in today’s climate, companies are proactively looking for innovative tools and solutions that help bring their distributed teams closer together – without inducing the same dread associated with ‘trust falls’ and other lacklustre team building exercises.
Q: Why do you think that is?
A: Culture has direct correlations to inspiring employee wellbeing and loyalty. In a 2020 global study, 74% of the respondents indicated that culture is important to them. When teams collaborate well together, it presents the added benefits of heightened innovation, productivity, and operational excellence.
The sense of belonging to a group whilst working towards a common mission is fostered through formal and informal interactions. With a virtual office, the responsibility falls upon leaders and managers to implement and encourage these interactions, whilst also ensuring they’re innovative.
Q: What do you think is key to successful remote team building?
A: It’s important to remember that people are social beings. Employers transitioning to remote work due to circumstance are often concerned about productivity and discipline, yet the key to success is through trust.
Microsoft highlighted that having mutual trust is essential and can easily be established through frequent and regular check-ins between managers and co-workers. This provides an avenue for progress reviews and two-way feedback to stay in sync.
Studies have shown that a productive and stress-free day is comprised of at least 6 hours of interaction. To ensure that there is ample ‘face time’ for people to build relationships and feel connected all-remote companies like GitLab dedicate a few hours a week on informal communication. This may be facilitated through a wide array of activities, such as virtual coffee chat roulettes, lunch club, coworking calls, celebrations, games and more.
Q: Why should companies invest in team building?
A: Working from home poses a different set of challenges from working in the office. The mental strain from remote isolation and blurred work-life balance, compounded over time, can lead to burn-out and resignation. Needless to say, a high turnover rate is not only costly, but also hurts team morale.
Q: Are team building exercises more effective in larger group settings?
Not at all, on the contrary, having mixed group sizes to cater to the dynamics and behaviours between different personality types is beneficial. For example, consider now the best time to launch a buddy system or mentorship program within the business. Communication tools like Snack can automate the pairing of mentors and mentees for a guided conversation and enable you to think beyond the predisposed boundaries people place on department, hierarchy and geography. After all, if you want the team to be greater than the sum of its parts, we need to first help each other grow.
Q: Any final words of wisdom for companies looking to prioritise team building initiatives?
Team building is not limited to group activities, and forging individual connections is equally relevant. Ultimately, these efforts contribute to better company morale and keep employees happy and motivated.
As companies navigate their way through the future of work and a hybrid workforce, it is important to ensure that no one gets left behind – literally and virtually.
HappyHQ’s belief is a positive culture can be unlocked in every workplace; it just takes a collaborative effort to create and maintain a solid sense of belonging. This means listening to everyone’s current perceptions, feedback, and ideas on ways your company can radiate positivity.
HappyHQ helps companies easily recognise, implement, and sustain important culture changes.
Get in touch if you want to find out more.
