Fostering team spirit and increasing productivity is vital to any business, but how do you go about it when your team is operating remotely? Many companies, projects or organizations work with members who are based in separate locations, perhaps handling different task and communicating constantly through the use of the internet and other tools. Having a remote team offers many advantages, including the fact that more freedom and flexibility is given to each team member. Remote team building can help you set common goals and to build a culture, which can often be difficult in remote work settings.
Here are a few things you can do to foster remote team building:
- Break the ice! Try to use video chat or phone calls as much as you can, in order to give a “face” and a “voice” to each person, at least for a soft interaction, like an icebreaker or a small briefing.
- Meet up! Although your team members might be based in different locations, an occasional meet up even when everyone can get to know each other is a great idea. If you have the possibility and budget to pay for the team’s travel expenses, even better!
- Training: Training your employees might be a large investment, but it would definitely lead up to a more productive team effort in many scenarios.