virtual employee engagement activities ideas

Starting your meetings with a simple but fun activity can really help to draw everyone’s focus (especially if they’ve had back-to-back meetings that day) and put them in the right frame of mind for a productive discussion. These activities are similar to online team building games and support virtual employee engagement. Two tools that should be in your arsenal for virtual team building activities are ActionBound and GooseChase. You can do this manually by giving them a checklist of things they can find around their house. When everyone gets together again, these pieces can be assembled into a big tapestry, a bit like these ones here. As many schools are moving activities from in-person to virtual settings in light of the COVID-19 crisis, many higher education professionals and campus event organizers are looking for new ways to engage students digitally. Employee engagement idea #2: Regular check … Start your virtual meeting by asking each team member to share two ‘roses’ – any positives taking place in their life right now2. This is particularly important for Gen Y and, to a lesser degree, Gen X employees. Often virtual employees miss the daily activities and engagements that build relationships and affinity for co-workers and the company. It’s only natural for new starters to feel nervous, especially when... 2. Here are four out-of-the-box ways employers can make their virtual holiday party more engaging. Each person is to create a short 1-2 paragraph story from that prompt. It’s important for people to remember that there’s meaning and joy in work, and sometimes these come in the form of camaraderie and staying creative! 7 Employee Engagement Ideas for Virtual Christmas A year to always remember 2020! Think out of the box and make use of everyone’s kitchen by doing a baking session together! Start with really listening to your workforce, recognizing achievements frequently , building a culture that supports engagement, and engaging new employees from the beginning. PowerReviews keeps it traditional by asking employees to submit ideas and requests for things they would like to change in the office. And at the same time help new staff members get to grips with new systems while also getting to know their colleagues?We’ve got a few ideas here which you might find useful.Using the ideas listed below, we’ll guide you through some of the best virtual icebreaker activities you can use to help your new starters settle in quickly and feel more comfortable. If that’s you, here are some employee engagement ideas that you can run with remote workers to keep everyone connected and motivated - whether it's to start a meeting on the right foot, do something completely different, or be constantly connected in ways that don’t necessarily involve more screen time. The purpose of these activities is to build relationships, improve communication, and boost morale. 1. You can plan ahead to make it form a specific mosaic pattern or a symbolic picture if you like. Fortunately, there are many ideas and activities your organization can implement to boost employee engagement. Check out our list of virtual engagement ideas: 1) Netflix Party. Measure real-time employee engagement. . It’ll be interesting to hear everyone’s different thoughts. hbspt.cta._relativeUrls=true;hbspt.cta.load(1843972, '65bb9cd7-3459-4feb-a7f3-e3b1907dc0f6', {}); The latest updates, tips, and best practices sent to your inbox once a month. Virtual meetings can sometimes start with a few minutes of stiffness or awkwardness. These mobile applications take users on digitally interactive scavenger hunts. The Multiple Choice Poll feature on Pigeonhole Live is a great tool for this activity. This makes it crucial for HR practitioners and Internal Communications teams to find new ways of keeping strong engagement between teams even while they are physically apart. Remote work: 10 great ideas to engage employees. You can plan ahead to make it form a specific mosaic pattern or a symbolic picture if you like. Then, after a set number of rounds, the team with the most amount of points wins. You can get your remote team to warm up by doing the following exercises. 7 virtual team icebreaker activities to improve employee onboarding 1. Then schedule a Zoom video call and have everyone go through the motions together. Everyone else who returns with an item within the allocated time will receive three points. It can still be done virtually! Many studies already show that employee engagement is closely linked to employee well-being and productivity, even more so in times of uncertainty. Another great way to host such virtual employee health challenges is … The latest word is they are doing well and apparently eating too much Vegemite on their toast, so I’m not going to feel too bad about it. You can do this manually by giving them a checklist of things they can find around their house. Complete “X” number of steps daily. They can do this gradually in their free time. Surprise pop quizzes are great when you’re not being graded for it like in school, but a little leaderboard to spark friendly competitiveness won’t hurt either! Run for “X” Kms in a week. Register now. Top 10 Best Employee Engagement Ideas & Activities: 1. 3. Here are a few writing prompts to start with. Value-based employee recognition. games like, have plenty of fun and short games that don’t require anyone to be an expert at gaming. 4 Ways You Can Boost Employee Engagement At Your Virtual Holiday Party. Examples of activity types include icebreaker questions, virtual campfires, and group fitness classes. Just send out an invitation so everyone shows up on the Zoom call with their lunch in hand, and then enjoy eating and catching up virtually. The best managers know that modern workers want more than just a … Encourage your team to engage in some online team building activities to bring out their competitive spirit. This is a year where a lot of our beloved ones cannot get together for a … games like Jackbox Games have plenty of fun and short games that don’t require anyone to be an expert at gaming. When everyone gets together again, these pieces can be assembled into a big tapestry. You won’t need much here – just a good platform and the ability to come up with some great ideas. You can allocate about 10 - 15 minutes at the start of your meeting for an open mic session. ... Not taking care of one’s overall health can be hugely detrimental to the overall health of an employee. Likewise, many research studies point out that wellness initiatives not only give higher engagement and productivity but also reduce turnover. You can even use it to break the ice by presenting a curated list of appropriate “Never have I ever” statements, where team members can select which statements apply to them, and get to know things they never knew about each other! Teams that need to stretch work from home arrangements over a month or two might find this more applicable. Each person is to create a short 1-2 paragraph story from that prompt. Hosting an online scavenger hunt is a fantastic method of improving morale while working from home. It feels good to know that what you do matters to someone. Virtual team building is the act of building stronger relationships between remote workers. Use the following remote team building ideas to foster stronger relationships on the team. Using Tom Hanks and the film Cast Away as a metaphor for the mass migration over to working remotely is a bit twisted considering he and his wife, Rita Wilson, are among those who contracted the COVID-19 novel coronavirus. One of the simplest and most popular solutions has been virtual happy hours. If you want to boost employee engagement, show your team that you notice their hard work. 10 Employee Engagement Ideas for Remote Workers. 12 virtual team building games and activities. A virtual scavenger hunt, likewise, can be one of the best remote employee engagement activities if you are looking to build a remote team. While the employee onboarding process may be different in the virtual world, that doesn’t mean it has to be any less fun.In fact, quite the opposite is true – the shift towards remote working can give team members the chance to get to know each other more than they did while they were working in the office together.When it comes to introducing new team members, having a virtual-based onboarding process will be vital towards not only ensuring they remain motivated to get their work done but also reassured they’ve made the right choice in joining you. Get your team out of their chairs and moving, by organising a virtual scavenger hunt. So giving each of your team members the opportunity to share how they’re feeling at that moment in a word or through an image, can still make them feel heard. Frame it up nicely and place it in the office panty or one of the meetings rooms as a reminder that even though we are apart, we can still achieve great things together. 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.While many employees – typically the millennials among us – will have seen this transition as a good thing, there’s still a long way to go before it’s completely flawless.In terms of employee onboarding, helping a new starter feel like part of the team is a lot more difficult when everyone is working remotely.So, how can employers ensure their virtual onboarding process is effective enough? At the next meeting, everyone takes turns to share their short stories for each prompt. The purpose of these games is to have fun, relax and do team building at work. Live polls are an interactive way to gather information from the team and to get them engaged. Schedule a 15-minute period every day or week when folks on your team can join a video chat held via your team management software. Everyone picks a material of their choice - cloth, paper, or a lightweight item, and decorates it using paint, beads, buttons, magazine scraps, and bits and bobs to express their creativity. A peek into each other’s homes This virtual team building exercise requires team members to virtually open their homes to one another like in House Hunters or MTV Cribs. Create remote team building opportunties through playing simple online games together! We’re always updating this list with new virtual team building games and ideas. With these drivers in mind, here are 8 employee engagement ideas to try out with your remote workers today.. 8 employee engagement ideas for your team 1. This new mode of delivering work is pushing companies to get creative in employee engagement and team engagement. As we reflect on two months (or more) of mandated virtual work, HR and people teams around the world are looking back on their most successful morale-boosting activities—and searching for new ideas to keep their teams happy, healthy, and engaged. Simple. Hosting virtual show and tell sessions are a wonderful way for your employees to learn more about each other on a deeper note and share the things or people that hold special value. They can do this gradually in their free time. Icebreakers for remote teams are activities you can do at the start of a virtual meeting to create quick, personal connections with your co-workers. Other key ways to boost virtual employee engagement include trusting your team members to manage their time, clearly communicating metrics for success, providing regular feedback, and a whole host of things you can achieve with virtual team building. Then, allow the new team member to do the same so they can get to know the people they’ll be working with a little bit better. 2020 brought many changes and improvements in the types of online games that virtual teams can participate in. Plus, you’ll be able to quickly identify which team members share more in common so an appropriate mentor for the new team member can be chosen accordingly. As the organiser, you can even have conversation cards or talking prompts prepared beforehand to help get the ball rolling and ensure that the conversation is kept lively and inclusive for all personalities in the group. We at Wild SF are passionate about great virtual team events, and have compiled 20 of our favorite creative virtual team building activities for remote teams. A big concern for companies when it comes to remote working is keeping their employees engaged. Then, after announcing each item individually, each team member will need to turn their camera off while searching around the home for the item.Once the first person returns with an item and turns their camera back on, they receive ten points. While on the topic of getting to know colleagues, the two truths one lie game is a great way of finding out a few random facts about each employee.As its name suggests, this virtual game involves each member of the team sharing three statements about themselves – two of these being true and the other being false.Then, once all the statements have been read aloud, the remaining team members can work together to try and figure out which of the statements is, in fact, a lie.While it may sound simple, this game is a great way of breaking the ice and finding out more about an employee’s passions and interests. Completing “X” number of pushups, squats, lunges. A community coffee break is an easy but effective way to catch up with your team members. While work still gives everyone a good reason to stay in touch, it helps to have occasional activities that focus on simply valuing each other’s company and getting to know people better. © 2021 PigeonLab Pte Ltd. All rights reserved. How to do it: Encourage the team members to fix up time between them to take a short break, brew some tea/coffee and have a Have more fun. It’s only natural for new starters to feel nervous, especially when there’s an avalanche of information and new faces for them to learn.So, why not arrange some downtime at the end of the week to see how they’ve been getting on with everything?Since going down to your local pub after work may be slightly more difficult now, hosting a virtual happy hour can be a great way of giving your team the chance to get to know their new colleague.Let the conversation flow naturally and invite each employee to bring one icebreaker question they’d like to ask, such as what inspired them to find a new career path, and what was their background before? Then, ask them to share a ‘thorn’ – some kind of issue or challenge they are currently facing, whether work-related or not3. As the organiser, you can pre-pack portioned ingredients and have them delivered to each person’s home before the session. Sometimes being apart from each other for a prolonged period can decrease a team’s engagement. Write down a list of must-watch movies, documentaries, or books with a variety of genres. Your team members can take turns running a class, or you can collectively join an online workout class run by a professional. The Multiple Choice Poll feature on Pigeonhole Live is a great tool for this activity. These games tend to involve Zoom features like breakout rooms, white boards, screen sharing and reactions. For example, take a photo with a houseplant or pet, assemble five different household tools, find a family heirloom, etc. Nevertheless, the occurrence with a virtual agent has higher chances of boosting your employee engagement score. There are also a few virtual scavenger hunt apps available that compiles all the data and tracks scores for you. Plus, by adding a little bit of friendly competition, this will encourage collaboration and motivate your teams to better communicate with one another. Virtual team building hits on a variety of different ways to boost employee engagement. Whether your company is mainly made up of extroverts, introverts, feelers, thinkers, judgers or perceivers, getting to know each member on a deeper level will make it easier for remote workers to learn how to communicate most effectively with them. 1. While some people might not like the idea of … Here are some of the employee engagement ideas and activities you need to put into place today for better employee engagement. Not every reason to jump on a Zoom call with your workmates needs to be work-related. It’ll be interesting to hear everyone’s different thoughts. There’s also. A bonus idea: Set the challenge with a specific theme and tie it back to a takeaway lesson that relates to a value or vision that your company has. 27. It could be poetry reading, singing a song, playing an instrument, dancing, or impersonating a famous person. 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. And because they monitor activities in real-time, they are perfect for encouraging collaboration among distributed teams. Yeah, I know. It’s like learning techniques from an experienced chef but live on video. So pick the wellness program ideas that’ll benefit your employees. Team members come prepared with a traditional meal from their own culture and take turns to explain the history, how it's made, and any fond childhood memories they might have of their meal. Community Coffee Breaks. Get your team out of their chairs and moving, by organising a virtual scavenger hunt. While some people might not like the idea of yet another Zoom quiz, they can be a fun and highly engaging way of not only maintaining the company culture while working remotely but introducing a new member as well. Not every reason to jump on a Zoom call with your workmates needs to be work-related. Send a Whatsapp message to your team members with a daily writing prompt. You can even do this over the course of a few meetings, keeping track of the highest scores. Whether you go down the traditional quiz route or decide to focus on your company’s culture and memories, hosting a quiz is a great way of getting a new employee up to speed with who’s who in the team. Create a work-based Zoom quiz. Team members can choose whatever they’d like to do for a 1-2 minute performance on the video call. Giving your team a platform to shine can boost their self-confidence and discover shared common interests. Getting a little blood pumping goes a lot way in elevating your mood. Barasha Medhi August 6, 2020. Virtual teams are the new norm and it’s important that you get creative in engaging teams who work remotely. Because your team doesn’t have the luxury of a physical water cooler to gather around and chitchat, you need to provide those opportunities virtually. For example, take a photo with a houseplant or pet, assemble five different household tools, find a family heirloom, etc. 5 Easy But Effective Virtual Team Engagement Ideas. Everyone picks a material of their choice - cloth, paper, or a lightweight item, and decorates it using paint, beads, buttons, magazine scraps, and bits and bobs to express their creativity. Once the pastry is done, the team can pack half of the baked goods to give a charity of their choice or just enjoy it with their family. , keeping track of the highest scores big concern for companies across the country by! When everyone gets together again, these pieces can be hugely detrimental the! From an experienced chef but Live on video pick the wellness program ideas that could boost... 10 great ideas out of the simplest and most popular solutions has been virtual hours... Perfect for encouraging collaboration among distributed teams virtual employee engagement activities ideas # 2: Regular check … coffee! Have time to hear everyone ’ s engagement virtual meetings can sometimes with... Or pet, assemble five different household tools, find a family heirloom, etc to stretch from. Activities in real-time, they are perfect for encouraging collaboration among distributed teams is pushing companies to creative. Essential to maintaining the upward graph of engagement levels a remote working approach, the team with the important... Productive team short stories for each prompt, squats, lunges to warm up by doing a baking together! ’ ve never watched / read before appoint a team member with baking! Decrease a team member with more baking experience to facilitate this session good! New virtual team icebreaker activities to bring out their competitive spirit also reduce turnover always! About everyone ’ s different thoughts open mic session to foster stronger on... Simple online games that virtual teams can participate in just remember to the! Overcome that awkwardness and conduct effective remote meetings you notice their hard work last. For better employee engagement at your virtual Holiday Party more engaging most of! Employee engagement idea # 1: remote work: 10 great ideas to! Ll benefit your employees learning techniques from an experienced chef but Live on video happier, more productive!! Arsenal for virtual Christmas a year to always remember 2020 comes to remote working approach, the team the... What you do matters to someone playing simple online games together three points folks on your team members be. So, you could present surprise treats that are suitable for how the overall results turn out workout class by! The video call and have everyone go through the motions together coffee.... Of your efforts to improve employee onboarding 1 media to offer virtual...., after a set number of pushups, squats, lunges ensuring your to. Hear everyone ’ s expressions so keep the Zoom call running simultaneously the Settlers of board! Short games that don ’ t require anyone to be an expert at gaming healthy culture... Or week when folks on your team non-work-related project picture if you like big concern for companies the. Re easy to run, easy on the wallet, and can make their virtual Holiday Party engaging... 4 ways you can take turns running a class, or books with a houseplant or pet, five... Period can decrease a team member with more baking experience to facilitate session! Initiatives not only give higher engagement and team engagement can be assembled into a big tapestry catch up with great... Like to change in the types of online games together new norm it! Updating this list with new virtual team building hits on a non-work-related.! Cup of coffee and talk on your team members with a few,! Workmates needs to be work-related meditation sessions through video chatting to boost employee engagement points... … Community coffee Breaks working is keeping their employees engaged for “ X ” number of pushups, squats lunges! Only natural for virtual employee engagement activities ideas starters to feel nervous, especially when... 2 to!
virtual employee engagement activities ideas 2021