Team building is an important part of taking care of the atmosphere in the organization. As research shows, companies and startups which regularly conduct team-building meetings have seen an increase in employees' productivity. But not every subordinate wants to participate in that kind of integration activity.
Find out why team-building exercises are so important and choose the best way to encourage your employees to play with others. Check how much your organization can gain from good communication between team members.
In our last article, we introduced the top 19 team building games for remote employees thanks to which your subordinates can stay in touch with coworkers and get to know them better. This time we are explaining why participating in integration games is important and we will introduce 5 useful tips which will help you motivate your subordinates to take a part in team-building games.
According to the research published on Social Science Research Network, a happy employee is a productive employee. A high level of satisfaction and the possibility to take a good rest raises morale and allows them to be more engaged in work projects.
When people feel good in their work environment, it is easier for them to focus on their responsibilities, their trust in the employer rises and because of that, they work better even if not longer even for an hour (or maybe even less than usual). The same thing happens for remote employees too.
Organizing integration activities and games for remote workers are important due to the feeling of loneliness that they can experience when they work in their homes without real contact with coworkers. Coronavirus pandemic caused the mass transition to remote work among employees around the world. This sudden change in difficult circumstances raises the stress level and limited contact with other people make employees feel even more alienated and they can experience a lack of engagement and productivity.
Thanks to team building video conference workers have an opportunity to hang out with their colleagues and feel like a part of the organization. Make your employees happy to raise their happiness and make them more engaged in their projects. A quarter of an hour from a 40 hours work week is not a high price for happiness and productivity!
Choosing the right integration game is only a part of success. Employees need to actively participate in a team-building activity with a positive attitude so they can be successful. Otherwise, integration exercises will not succeed because of the lack of a friendly atmosphere to open up among other workers.
So how to motivate employees to take part in team-building games to achieve success?
In office conditions it is easy to overlook employees which do not really participate in integration games. They pretend to play but in reality, they focus on their own thoughts or work they have to do. It is even easier to miss those people when you conduct an online team building game.
So how to make sure that people really take a part in the game? For the starter: ask quick simple questions and ask every employee for their response. This way all of your workers will have to stay alarmed because they never know when you will want them to answer a question. In the case of larger groups, you should divide people into smaller teams to be able to play the whole game in a predetermined time.
Rule 2.5x says that if you give 2.5 units of something to others, we will have to pay for it giving our recipients something they want. That will make them more engaged and focused on what we have to show them.
When creating the team building schedule for an online or in-office game you should use this rule. If the first 5 minutes of the meeting will be a short integration game, the part connected to the working over a given project should take 12.5 minutes (2.5 x 5 minutes).
Team building for employees helps people to get to know each other and feel better in their work environment. But to make those activities successful, you should conduct them on a regular basis. Organizing team building exercises once a year is not enough to improve the atmosphere in your organization. Not all of the companies and startups are able to organize team-building meetings very often so they have to think about other solutions.
Making the first few minutes of every meeting a team building activity will be a great solution for lack of time for such exercises. The game will not take much time but employees will gain the opportunity to talk, relax, and have some fun between coworkers. Thanks to this, even those stressful meetings will be easier to get through if you know you are between your own people.
Everyone likes receiving gifts – they make us feel rewarded, accepted, and valuable. Companies and startups know about it that is why they often provide employees with t-shirts, mugs, and other gadgets with the organization's logo. It is worth taking care of this also in the case of remote workers.
Due to the limited contact with the office community, teleworkers can feel more alienated from the group. Sending them packages with gadgets from time to time will let them feel like a part of a workers' society which will have a great impact on their well-being and feeling against the employer. But do not remember about your stationary employees – they also need some love. This is a low cost initiative that can make your employees smile and feel better.
Even if everyone in your organization works remotely, it is good to meet face to face once in a while. In-person meetings will not only let your subordinates know each other but also understand each other better because the body language has a great meaning in correctly interpreting ambiguous messages.
If you know the body language of your coworkers, it is easier to find out what it is all really about and react correctly in unclear situations. It will increase communication in your organization on a daily basis. That is why you should think of organizing face to face meetings for your workers as often as you can.
Team building games and exercises are a great way to get employees to better know each other and find a way to better cooperate as a team. Team building affects employees' well-being but also on their productivity and overall performance of the company or startup. If you want your team building meeting to be a success, you have to engage all of the workers to achieve the best results.
And how do you engage your employees to take part in team-building activities? We want to hear from you!
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