8 tips to recreate team spirit as you return to work
Transitioning back into your workplace? Here's how can you re-build and foster greater collaboration.
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Re-cultivating team spirit at your organisation may be pivotal to improving business-wide performance – as companies that promote collaborative working are 5 times as likely to be high performing.1
But how can you re-build and foster greater collaboration when you’re not in the office?
Well, the key is to ensure your teamwork activities are meaningful and not inconsequential2 by relating them back to the following:
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Common purpose
Do all the members on your team understand and share the same goal?
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Connection
Do your activities allow your team to relate to one another in order to create productive, engaging cultures on their own?
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Communication
Do your team communicate effectively with each other?
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Collaboration
Do your team know and appreciate each other’s strengths and talents?
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Celebration
Do you publicise and celebrate your team’s successes?3
So, how can you begin nurturing these attitudes and activities at your business?
01
Bring Your Team Together
There are plenty of team building exercises that don’t require physical contact. For example, you could organise online breakfast, lunch or coffee meets, with time allocated for catching up and connecting with colleagues socially, and then time to discuss each person’s goals for the day.
02
Focus On Supporting Mental Health
The past few months have been challenging, and your team may need some additional support. But reaching out to ask for help may prove more difficult in a remote environment, as employees could feel more isolated and disconnected from their employers.
To combat this, ensure your business has optimised your employee assistance programme (EAP) to enable remote access. This may mean offering support online and over the phone. You could also ask for a volunteer to be trained as the mental health champion in the business, or set up a questionnaire that can show areas for improvement and allow your team to provide recommendations on how to make little changes for longer term growth.
03
Set New Team Goals
Unifying your team against a target (no matter how small) is a great way to facilitate business-wide collaboration. Given the current climate, your business’ strategy may be more reactive right now, but it’s still a good idea to set short-term measurable goals on a weekly or monthly basis.
Start by determining what each team member needs to accomplish – ask yourself, what does the end goal look like – can it be encapsulated in a single number or statement that employees can aim at?
Next, establish the outcomes each employee needs to achieve – outline a step-by-step list of mini-targets that your team needs to reach in order to meet your larger goal.
Finally, make sure you give each team member the freedom to work autonomously – this means allowing employees to use their own unique approach to complete their tasks where possible.
04
Create A Culture Of Respect
A survey in 2016 for the Society for HR Management found that “respectful treatment of all employees” was the number-one contributor to job satisfaction.4 Unfortunately, remote work can make respectful communication slightly more challenging, as online meetings remove some of the key social cues we’re used to seeing and using in our day-to-day interactions, creating frustration and increasing miscommunication.
So, to make sure your relations with colleagues remain respectful in the online space, try to remember these three things:
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Agree realistic and achievable deadlines – remote work can mean processes take a little longer to complete, so be sure to factor this in when deciding on deadlines for projects.
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Be fair and avoid favouritism – encourage your team to use the ‘raise hand’ feature in your video conferencing software to ensure everyone has a chance to give their input.
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Turn off all notifications when you’re on video calls, so you can give them your full attention.
05
Recognise Individual Needs
Researchers have found that extroverts are energised by spending time with others, whilst introverts find socialising quite draining, and need time to recuperate.6 Working remotely is likely to exacerbate the impact of these traits on your team’s wellbeing, meaning some of your colleagues are more likely to thrive than others.
With this in mind, ask each individual in your team how they prefer to complete their work. If possible, allow your more introverted colleagues to complete tasks independently, and give them space to take regular breaks from calls when needed.
When it comes to meeting the needs of your extroverted teammates, offer them the opportunity to tackle projects in pairs or groups when needed, as this will help them to stay energised throughout their workday
06
Refocus On Your Business' Values
It’s likely that your business has a set of values – but are they incorporated into your day-to-day interactions? To build on your business’ team spirit, celebrate colleagues who embody one of your business’ principles, and share their successes via email, your regular team catch ups or with a # on your social channels.
07
Find New Ways To Recognise Teamwork
If you want to foster collaboration you should celebrate it! Budgets might be a bit tight right now, but you can still recognise hardworking teams at your business with direct, thoughtful and impactful praise..
When commending teamwork, make sure that you highlight each individual’s contribution, noting how their unique skills within their field helped you to achieve your goals. You should also talk about how the team cooperated effectively as a group, highlighting how they used soft skills to maximise your results. These include:
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Problem-solving
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Communication
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Creativity
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Adaptability
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Conscientiousness7
08
Get Creative At Break Time
Working remotely doesn’t mean you can’t find fun ways to rebuild connections with your colleagues during your break times. From virtual quizzes and online games, to video meet ups where you introduce your colleagues to family members and pets, there’s plenty you can do to relax, unwind and stay connected. You could even take your laptop or phone into the garden to enjoy a virtual coffee break or arrange a socially distanced picnic in a convenient local park.
CREATE, COLLABORATE AND CONNECT WITH NESPRESSO® PROFESSIONAL
At Nespresso® Professional, we believe connecting with your colleagues should be simple, easy and convenient, even while socially distancing.
That’s why we created a range of versatile offers, designed to enable greater flexibility and ease of use in your new way of working. You and your team can choose from 14 different coffee blends, carefully crafted from various Arabica and Robusta coffee bean blends, so you can make every coffee moment count.
- New study finds that collaboration drives workplace performance, Forbes, June 2017
- How to improve teamwork in the workplace, Gallup
- The 5 Tactics of Teamwork: A Blueprint for Team Management, Gallup, January 2020
- Chapter 7, HBR Guide to Performance Management, Harvard Business Review Guides, February 2019
- Promoting a respectful culture, The University of Edinburgh, January 2019
- Why Socializing Drains Introverts More Than Extroverts, Psychology Today, August 2017
- Soft Skills: Definitions and Examples, Indeed, MARCH 2020
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