7 Ways to Build Strong Team Relations While Working Remotely

Working with people you see 40 hours a week is easy. But how do you blend in a team that rarely comes together?

The absence of personal interaction can make team bonding difficult for remote employees.

This is why we bring for you 7 unique ways to build strong team relations while working remotely.

Let’s get started!

1. Set up an online buddy system

Getting to know your co-workers remotely is difficult but you can change that.

Start with initiating a buddy system to learn more about your teammates.

To have a cool buddy system, you can,

1. Pair random people in the team.
2. Plan fun activities for the buddies and reward the best duo performers.
3. Scoop out time from the heavy work routine to talk to your buddy.
4. At the end of the week, shuffle the partners and repeat!
   
   Tip: Use the Donut Slackbot to smartly pair people who interact less.

2. Plan virtual parties with your team

You must be thinking, how can you party with someone who is not even there?

It’s very simple! Plan a virtual party.

Decide a date and time when everyone is available and list the things you want them to arrange like food, drinks, costumes, etc.

Additionally, make a playlist with groovy songs to dance on and ditch the casual moves for the quirky ones.

And if this looks like a lot of work, you can use these apps to party online:

1. Houseparty  to video call your colleagues and play games like Trivia, Pictionary, and more.
2. Justalk to video call, doodle, and play games, all in one place.
3. Airtime  to live stream movies with your colleagues and video chat.

3. Use time saved in commuting for team bonding

You don't have to wait for the company to set a team culture. Just reach out to your team on your own.

For starters, use the time you save in commuting to know your team.

Greet your colleagues every morning to stay in touch and bond with them.

You can also get creative by planning lunches, taking coffee breaks online, giving a tour of home/office, etc.

4. Make unofficial video chat rooms for team interaction

Talking in office work groups can seem a little difficult and you may even hesitate to speak up.

The solution is to make a separate channel on Slack, MS Teams, Zoom, or whichever portal your company uses.

Encourage over-communication. Use this space to share office experiences, your weekend plans, or how the last Game of Thrones episode was a disappointment.

5. Take the “water cooler” conversations online

Water cooler chats are a great way to bring the team closer.

But remote teams do not have a common place to get together and talk, making it important to have a virtual water cooler in place.

To take the water cooler chats online, you can:

1. Create a separate channel for the team to chat.
2. Try things like Know Your Team Slackbot that offers icebreakers and social questions to get your conversations started.
3. Divide people in small groups and have virtual weekly online catch-ups.

Tip: You can also plan a talk sheet to have conversation ideas.

6. Video calls over phones, chats, and emails

Nothing can replace being physically present in an office with your colleagues.

But remote teams don't see each other regularly and can easily get bored of hearing voices and exchanging emails.

A good idea is to choose video calls over calls, chats, and emails as they are more personal and give a sense of being present.

You can video call your teammates hassle-free by using office tools like Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts, WebEx, Go To Meeting, Microsoft teams.

7. Plan creative remote team activities

Team activities are the underdogs of team bonding.

So what activity you choose and how you go about it can majorly impact your team dynamics.

Here are 3 activities you must try with your team.

i. Remote team bingo

Make a customized bingo board with common scenarios that match your people and company culture.

Send out these cards and ask everyone to mark the things they relate to.

Once done, discuss your responses. This will help you bond and know your teammates better.

ii. Exciting sponge

The exciting sponge will make your creative horses run a marathon.

Everyone has to pick the first available object and weave an exaggerated, funny story describing why it is the best.

For example, if you pick a notebook, you could make up a story like:

This notebook is special because every time we make a movie about aliens, they rant in it.

iii. Guess the owner

The COVID-19 pandemic has our team working remotely.

So, we recently played guess the owner to catch up with each other and had a wonderful time.

All you have to do is take a photo of something that uniquely describes a part of your personality or interest.

Choose a host and send all these pictures to them.

This host will send one image at a time on your unofficial chat channel for everyone to guess the owner of the object.

Sounds fun, right?

You can also try Petri, TeamBonding, and other websites to get more ideas for remote team activities.

In conclusion, we know that remote workers rarely meet their teammates, and bonding online is hard and mostly awkward.

So, the only way to grow as a team is to take initiative, reach out to your colleagues, and participate.

Also, don't forget to visit AmbitionBox to discover great places to work.

All the best!