The challenge some companies have faced as more and more employees work from home is finding a way to keep their team unified. In a remote working environment, it is always possible that interactions will become sparse, leaving certain individuals on an island and not feeling as connected to their cohorts as usual.
Fortunately, video call technology has made it easier to make a team feel like a team, even if everyone is scattered in separate offices. That said, not everyone buys into this notion.
An existing perspective is that video meetings are a tough place to truly foster proper teamwork habits. People are still largely separated from one another; a lot of work is completed individually; and not everyone knows how to communicate effectively in such a space.
While those examples are largely true, this is how teamwork can still exist during video calls:
Host More Meetings
There has always been a debate over how many weekly video meetings are too much, or not enough. In reality, there is not a hard and fast number that can be pointed to – it all depends on the company putting them on.
However, if team meetings need to be held exclusively upon an online meeting platform, having a higher number of them will help your staff feel more united and familiar with one another. Sometimes, the fewer team video calls a company holds can result in the staff not gelling as it should. As a result, working as a team becomes a trickier proposition.
Encourage Better Dialogue
If you know how to work as a team, you certainly understand how important effective communication is.
When hosting a video call, it is your responsibility to get the ball rolling – to get people talking and bouncing ideas off each other. By strategically and enthusiastically making such conversations happen, you are forcing individuals to think – and act – as a teammate in order to successfully deliver on a project.
Make Group Projects a Priority
Speaking of projects, instituting more group projects is arguably the easiest way to create more of a team dynamic during virtual meetings. Even if all Team A members are working from their homes, they will need to have regular contact with each member – through live video chat online sessions – to ensure everyone is on the same page.
To take things one step further, use future video conferences to create new teams, for new projects. Going this route will help your staff build a multitude of internal relationships, as opposed to sticking with a specific group of individuals all of the time.
Have a Desirable Atmosphere
When done the wrong way, a group video call can be mind-numbingly boring and make staff feel more disengaged than interested in collaborating as a team.
What constitutes a “desirable atmosphere” is different for everyone, but try to host team video calls where staff members are encouraged to speak up and collaborate. You can even create a flexible meeting agenda that’s organized, but not rigid to the point where opportunities to brainstorm as a group are minimal.
Explore Team Building Activities
Every so often, have a video meeting in which serious business matters take a backseat to allowing the team to get to know each better as human beings. This is especially important for remote workers.
As convenient as working from home is, it can be isolating. Thus, creating opportunities for these types of employees to socialize on non-business-related matters can create rock-solid relationships. This can be done by bringing a trivia tournament into a team video call, or by having an online cocktail mixer to close out the week on a high note.
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