With everything that’s currently going on regarding the pandemic, it’s no wonder that people may feel less excited and enthusiastic than normal. With a large proportion of people working from home for around a year now alongside the demoralising nature of the pandemic, keeping team morale high is more important than ever.
If you are looking for a way to recoup company energy, read on to discover some fun team-building exercises that will get workforces synched up and enjoying each other’s company.
Start a Book Club
Book clubs are a great way to bring people together and also create common ground between a group of people. Giving your team a topic to talk about can be a real ice breaker as well as helping to get conversations going, and the great thing about book clubs is that they are easy to organise. Create a collaborative choosing process, perhaps put a list of books up to a team vote and then set a timescale on when you are going to discuss the book. A chapter a week, perhaps, or you could try for a book a month with a meeting at the end of the month to discuss it.
And, with advances in technology, book clubs are even great for those who aren’t big fans of reading. In order to get the ball rolling, you could offer to provide the book for your team in whatever format they’d prefer: a paper copy, an e-book or even an audiobook!
For companies in certain niches as well, you can always use a book club to expand your team’s knowledge by picking titles that are relevant to your field of work. Not only then do you create a commonality between your staff in that they are reading the book, but everyone who is reading along will be picking up knowledge and information that will help them in their day-to-day roles.
If books aren’t your thing, this could also work well with TV series or even film.
Have a “Show and Tell”
Whilst people are at home in their own spaces and surrounded by their belongings, why not take advantage of this and start off a meeting with a “show and tell” session? This can be a great way to learn more about your team and what makes them tick and will also be a great conversation starter. Depending on the size of your team and how frequently you have meetings, you could have one person present something at a meeting or have the whole team bring something. Be sure to tell everyone with ample time before the event that this is happening though, as you don’t want people scrambling around at the beginning of a call for something to show. And make it clear that if someone doesn’t want to participate they by no means have to.
For an added challenge, you could consider setting a theme for each session and asking for items on that theme. This can be a great way to steer the conversation and, for those who may struggle to know what to show can give them a good starting point. A few themes you could consider:
• The best souvenir you brought back from a holiday
• An item you cannot live without
• The weirdest food item you have in the fridge
Remember, the topics don’t have to be serious and can just be a nice way to give everyone a chuckle in the morning!
Organise a Virtual Lunch
Lunchtime in an office can be a great time for your team to unwind, talk about topics outside of work and relax together. One disadvantage of working from home can bring is that it means this ‘downtime’ is no longer time spent together and instead, people may find themselves sat at home alone eating. What’s more, staff may end up not relaxing during their lunch break and instead find themselves unable to switch-off like before with fewer distractions.
A nice way to recreate this digitally is with a virtual lunch. Why not arrange a lunchtime where all of your staff log on and eat together? You can discuss current events, talk about what was on TV the night before or play simple games together and make sure staff are unwinding and relaxing. To make this even more of an event, why not try to co-ordinate lunches? You could organise a pizza delivery for everyone who wishes to take part so it feels even more like you are together and sharing the same experience.
Team-building activities and exercises for improved company culture
• Start a Book Club
• Have a “Show and Tell”
• Organise a Virtual Lunch
With these fun and easy-to-organise activities, you can be sure to bring your team together and encourage a more relaxed atmosphere in what is a stressful time for many.
In such a demanding time, it can be even more important to support your HR and payroll teams to ensure they can stay on top of processes and people management. As specialist HR technology consultants, we can offer advice on everything from payroll services to people analytics and more, giving your team the best tools for the job at hand. Contact us to find out how we can help you today.
For more tips and advice, make sure to visit our blog.
This blog was written by Louise Johnston, Customer Success Manager at Phase 3.
