How to stay connected with your team on home office | Pandemic Edition

Boosting the interpersonal communication and teamwork between co-workers within their teams and above is a dream come true for any HR manager. But with the worldwide pandemic still ongoing, it can be tough to crack. How to connect teamwork while your employees are in the home office and working remotely? We did a little research and came up with few ideas.

Before the pandemic of covid-19 started, we had so many options. We could casually build relationships within the company. One of the most used ways was to go out for a drink after work or organize all company teambuilding events. Are these activities so non-accessible as it seams? Are there any alternative ways how to connect while being comfortable and safe at home? Let’s take a look. 

Teambuilding blues 

The overall issue with teambuilding is the budget. You can do a lot. Although without sorted money specifically for teambuilding, it can be difficult. In some countries, the companies prefer to go camping in nature, where they build their surviving skills, play various treasure hunts or slide a wild river. No exceptions are loads of alcohol.

To get help, find a teambuilding agency in your area. They will help you organize the best experience for everybody included in the event. Same as other businesses, even event agencies had to move their main focus online. That’s why there is plenty of activities to choose from and have fun “together.” One of those agencies is Catalyst Teambuilding. They operate worldwide in almost any country or continent. They offer online but also offline activities that you can choose from upon parameters of your choice. You can compete, work on team cooperation or develop creative thinking. It only depends on what you prefer. 

A cheaper but certainly not easier option is to do your event, such as a quiz night. For this, you can use the online app Kahoot. The participants will download it through a QR code. Once they install it on their phone, they are ready to start. For example, if your HR team managed to do heavy onboarding of new employees, your main goal is to get to know the newcomers with the rest of the staff. You can ask them to send one fun fact about them and then add these to the quiz. We are sure it’s going to be loads of fun. 

Casual virtual coffee hangouts

We are all spending many hours by our computer screen daily. Sometimes we ask how many zoom meetings are too many in one day? So why should people voluntarily spend another extra hour with our colleagues online? If you want this to work, don’t force it. We are missing human contact and connections now more than ever. That’s why we suggest casual coffee (wine or beer) online hangouts. It’s nice to meet with other people once or twice a month. Finish work early and have an online talk. For this, you have set a non-work-related theme that your colleagues can discuss. 

Whether it’s any of the suggested activities online, don’t forget there are rules to be followed so it won’t become a mess. Always have a refreshment ready (drink of your choice and snack), have a camera turned on so everyone can see you, and turn off your mic if you are not speaking.

We are optimistic these tough online times will be soon over, and we will meet in person once again. And trust us when we say: we can’t wait!