Many organizations are reconsidering whether all of their employees will return to the office again, or whether they’ll continue to support remote work. To create these water cooler moments while virtual, the team at Informatica has created different Yammer channels for employees to have more casual non-work related conversations. Since remote work is here to stay for many companies, it will take a fresh approach to employee engagement in order to keep your company culture alive and retain talent. These activities result in happier and more productive employees, more effective teams, and a stronger company. So we asked 4 practitioners to share their strategies and ideas for employee engagement activities to help you navigate this new territory and keep your virtual workforce engaged. Even if your role doesn’t have accountability for culture and employee experience, we hope this list might inspire you to bring some fresh ideas to some of your colleagues who do oversee this area and make you more attractive as an employer! It also comes with a free 14 day trial. Building a strong virtual culture isn’t easy and requires constant nurturing to maintain. The goal is to create a healthy virtual culture that breeds trust, communication, collaboration and engagement. Employee resource groups can be a great spot to build connections, deliver resources and create activities for different segments of your employee population. The Talent Board reports that as of May 2020, only 35% of employers who responded to their survey had a message about how COVID-19 was impacting hiring on their careers site. Donut reviews have mentioned employees thoroughly enjoying the tool as they’ve met with individuals with whom they normally wouldn’t have crossed paths. These AMAs were started to provide updates about things that are changing in response to COVID-19 — like business changes, return to work updates and more. Each person teams up with a colleague and the team that answers correctly wins Amazon gift cards. Informal interactions around the office water cooler (or coffee machine) help to create connections and build rapport between team members. These are the employees who make it easy to do your job well. The session talked about how to process, grieve and take action following the death of George Floyd. The L&D team created this channel as a place for employees to talk about challenges, share resources and connect with each other while working remotely. We asked 4 practitioners to share their best ideas to engage remote employees and keep your corporate culture alive. For now, at least, the days of in-person meetings, team lunches and traditional onboarding processes are a thing of the past, replaced instead by video conferencing, at-home lunches and virtual, cloud-based employee onboarding processes. The biggest mistake most managers make is not being as hands-on as they were in the office. A strong virtual culture fosters collaboration, productivity and innovation. Many tech companies, from Facebook to Shopify to Twitter, have announced that they’re moving to a remote-first approach — or are open to allowing employees to stay remote permanently — even after this crisis is behind us. 2020 brought many changes and improvements in the types of online games that virtual teams can participate in. Strong internal communications are always important, but they’re even more important when teams are distributed. Modern Spaces has tapped into TikTok where its marketing team has taken on TikTok challenges and creating funny, light-hearted videos to boost happiness among the employees. I use my global expertise to provide virtual and in-person consulting and leadership coaching to the students at Babson College, Ivy League students and my global network. All this gives people the opportunity to get to know their leaders in a nontraditional and informal way. 1. This session also led to a few follow-up sessions on topics from Allyship to Intersectionality and beyond that other ERGs have participated in and helped to support too. Read more about why employee experience matters to Recruitment Marketing here. Additionally, virtual social hours are a great way to come together and discuss thought provoking content, indulge in competitive games or chat informally to unwind after a long week. It also keeps them engaged and learning about the company even if there’s no room for advancement. This makes it possible to make a lateral move within the company. Examples of activity types include icebreaker questions, virtual campfires, and group fitness classes. Shannon Feltes Grimes, Head of Employer Branding, GoDaddy. I'm a black belt in Six Sigma, former Society of Human Resources (SHRM) President and domestic violence mentor. Playing together will help increase communication, motivate your team, and build your virtual company culture that will be useful later on when there’s work to be done. Matthew Ross, cofounder and COO of The Slumber Yard, asks one trivia question at the end of each conference call. 4) Host virtual team bonding activities Social events and team bonding activities are really important for many employees. 1. As the Talent Brand Manager (and Talent Brand team of one! For round one, challenge your team members to find the most unique thing they have in common. Strategically designed virtual team building activities provide communication while reinforcing a shared team identity. Employees can share books, podcasts, article and video recommendations and hold discussions around them. Some managers have their teams participate in a “two truths and one lie” to create a discussion around the things they learn about their team members. Our support staff will get back to you in … In fact, companies can leverage their existing talent. Every three weeks, the integration automatically pairs up two employees who have signed up to participate in the program. Learn more at www.heidilynneco.com or get in touch at Heidi@heidilynneco.com. According to research, 39% of people working from home complete their tasks faster than those in fixed workplaces.. These events are planned, promoted and conducted using Microsoft Teams and Yammer. © 2021 Forbes Media LLC. Ross shared, his employees now look forward to conference calls so they can get to the trivia question at the end. The TextNow team launched Zoom calls to engage virtual employees in fun activities beyond the workplace. In addition, the TextNow team has also focused on providing candidates with useful information about their updated recruitment process. #LifeAtINFA #newnormal, A post shared by Life at Informatica (@lifeatinfa) on Mar 23, 2020 at 11:03am PDT, Elly Bradley, Director of Talent, TextNow. If you’re wondering what types of experiences and support an ERG can provide, GoDaddy’s Black in Tech ERG act as an outstanding example. When it comes to ice breakers for virtual teams, though, you need to get more creative. The benefits of cross-departmental training are vast. Employee engagement activities can increase retention (and thus, decrease hiring costs). I'm a Leadership Coach & Workplace Culture Consultant at Heidi Lynne Consulting helping individuals and organizations gain the confidence to become better leaders for themselves and their teams. Define goals for remote workers. Elly always shares her love of yoga with people, so she’s bringing everyone together to reduce stress. Pictured below are her two trusty interns, Duke and Princess Fergie. We’ve had to rethink what our employee experience looks like overnight and find ways to adapt many elements of our in-person culture into virtual experiences. Objective: These remote team building games can act as an icebreaker when you play this for the first time or a new hire joins the company. Taskforce to rise to the success of the game is to build relationships, improve,. Breakers for virtual teams can participate in the Program used to teach soft-skills as. Non-Work topics Claims rise to 965,000—Could Vaccines and Joe Biden ’ s team has taken on TikTok challenges and funny... 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