Building your team’s community is vital. Consider a formula that involves mixing a variety of virtual formats to appeal to everyone.

Developing gratifying relationships with colleagues in a remote work environment requires being more intentional and proactive in your interactions. Remote work can actually encourage deeper, more meaningful conversations than casual conversations in the hallway when done correctly.

The following are some tips for building community within your hybrid team:

• Open social events: Plan events around holidays or other celebrations or even coffee dates with no required agenda. Just normal catching up and a few laughs, all via video. Check out this free guide to make your professional virtual gatherings exponentially better https://www.priyaparker.com/virtualgatheringguide.
• Structured social event: If your team needs a little more structure to increase social comfort and participation, consider having a team member organize trivia games or icebreakers.
• If you are looking for a few Virtual Icebreakers, check out this website https://training-wheels.com/resources/virtual-playground-games/. It is free. Just click on the game you want to play. If you have a large group, you can put the link in the chatbox and send people into breakout rooms to connect. It is that simple, and the creator will be adding more activities in the future. The Virtual Playground is provided by Training Wheels – https://training-wheels.com/.
• Here are some ideas for different types of virtual watercoolers, a space for employees to check in and contribute to the conversation whenever they can. https://unremot.com/blog/virtual-water-cooler-for-remote-teams/
• Learning events: Allow co-workers to share their particular interests or knowledge, whether that happens to be musical theatre or finance. If you have someone on your team who excels with technology, have them share different apps or platforms (think Teams or Zoom).
• Asynchronous social events: Think of ways to make connections that don’t require you to be available simultaneously. Things like Secret Snowflake gift exchanges allow for participation regardless of schedule. Complement your community with messaging channels. Kudoboard is an online replacement for the physical greeting card that’s passed around and signed in the workplace (https://www.kudoboard.com).

Adapted from Replacing Water Cooler Chat In A Remote Work Environment, by Jen Raines-Loring, VP of People, Springboard Retail.