Working remotely separates us by default. What was typically warm communication in an office turns into quick communication that can lead to misunderstandings. A lack of trust is one of the first elements to appear. Team members don’t know each other as well and can’t see what others are doing or thinking, so cracks start to appear. One of the best ways to rebuild your company culture is to create regular online company events.

Don’t Underestimate the Power of Social Interactions

If your team is used to regular face-to-face meetings, after-work activities, birthday parties, and so on, they’re going to miss that interaction. It’s your duty to not let those events that bring people together disappear. The social aspect of work is key to employee motivation. Even in teams made up of introverts, knowing that you’re part of a team is a big motivational driver.

Use Company-Wide and Project-Based Activities

Don’t put all the pressure for organizing these activities on team leads and team managers. They must be planned at that level, but you’ll also need to organize company-wide activities to reconnect employees with the higher purpose of the company, so that they can see the big picture. This will also help create synergy with other departments.

Bring the Events That Already Worked into the Online Office

If your company was previously office based or if you previously worked in an office, take the events that were already working and translate them to the online world. This isn’t going to be a literal translation, though. You’ll need to maximize and exaggerate some aspects to make them work.

Here are a couple of examples:

• You’ll want to make sure that the opening of the event really sets the tone. For that, you’ll need to make sure that everybody has a voice. Or, if it’s a mass event, you’ll want to open with a big bang to get and keep people’s attention.
• The same applies to the end, so make sure you end on a high note. Preparing events isn’t always easy. That’s why we have a course that will help you master the preparation for and execution of online activities.

The Power of Regular Events

Working from home requires a lot of self-discipline and coordination with the other people in our lives. Help your team members by always planning certain events for the same day of the week at the same time. One of our favorite IT-related clients organizes two events every week, “Learn at Lunch” on Wednesdays and an “After-Work Party” on Thursdays. This helps their team members stay organized and plan other activities with the rest of their social circle.

The Power of Special Events

You have the power to surprise your team with special events, so take full advantage of that. Remote teams crave social/fun interactions. Give these to them.

Internal Product/Service Presentations

Has a team achieved something that will have company-wide impact? Create a special event for them. Not the typical PowerPoint, writing-emails-while-I-attend, kind of event. Prepare something fun. Make the different people involved in the development of the product or service present it in a creative way, include anecdotes between presentations, and make the event interactive.

It’s not easy to plan things like this in a remote setting. We have more than 10 years of experience organizing such events, so contact us. We’d be happy to help you.

Holiday Related Parties

Take all of your typical holiday-related parties and strengthen them for your virtual office. Employees look forward to these. They offer a chance to take their relationships with other team members to the next level, to feel like they belong, and to reconnect with the company.
Embrace and celebrate the multiculturalism of your team. (Here’s a course that will help you work better in a multicultural setting.) Curiosity is one of the main human drivers, so feed it using the multicultural diversity of your team.
 
In order to be successful, these kinds of celebrations require a good amount of preparation – especially if you want to surprise your team members. We have a lot of ideas. Let us know if we can help you.

Birthday Parties

You can be sooo creative for these! Here’s one tip: Think about the personality of the person whose birthday is being celebrated and build the party while keeping that in mind. If they’re a deep person, choose an activity that will connect with team members on a more profound level. If they’re a fun or lively person, go for a themed party full of fun activities. If they’re studying French, go for a France-themed party. Just make it personal. We’ve compiled hundreds of team activities you can use.

Create new events

It’s time to think outside the box. Why? To keep your team together, you’ll need to organize more events than when you were in the office. Not only that, but you’ll also need to make them fun.

Awards for Challenges

Challenges are so popular, so why not bring them to your company? Create a set of challenges that employees can do remotely and announce a grand awards ceremony for the end. HR and middle management can be in charge of coming up with the idea, but they don’t have to do all the work. You might be surprised by how much people are happy to host and co-organize these kinds of events.

The benefits are clear: increased motivation, increased identification with the company, a stronger connection with the company culture, and increased knowledge of the people working in other departments. Transversal activities, which reach across departments, help the company stay strong.

In-Company Networking Events

On a remote team, it’s harder to get to know the people working in other departments. But your new best friend might just be in a neighboring department and in a remote setting, it can be hard to meet that person. The common denominator for team members is that they all share the same values as a company.

Why not promote people from different departments getting to know each other better? Plan regular networking events for team members, starting the event with a very organized beginning. Then, at the end of the event, break the room up into different groups and let them just talk. Here’s another tip: Make sure to ask for feedback. Great ideas for future events will come from these meetings.

The sky’s the limit, but we don’t always have time to think of everything. Come to us with your needs and tell us what exactly you want to achieve. We’ll give you creative options for your events and prepare the meeting structure for them.

Improve your team's motivation. Contact us and we will help you