Virtual team building activities going into 2021 need to be part of your standard practices. 2020 is over, and our new reality is here.
Hopefully, by now, you have launched several types of virtual team-building activities and are know here to add to your knowledge and library.
For most of us, being virtual or a hybrid contact center model beyond 2021 is a certainty. If not, I’d like to learn what you will be doing.
In the meantime, we are in an industry that has struggled with employee engagement and morale issues for decades, and we need new skills to end the high employee turnover that many are experiencing now.
Now is the time for you to stand out and improve your focus and skills on virtual team building activities. Below is a set of ideas that will get you going.
Grab a copy of the complimentary ebook ‘The contact center leader’s guide to virtual team-building activities,’ which now has 30 virtual team-building activities.
Virtual Team-building Activities are Safe
There truly are positive reasons as to why your contact center should remain virtual (or hybrid). For most of 2021, it remains a safety issue.
With the recent mutations of COVID-19 and the slow roll-out of the vaccination of the world, working virtually is the best way to work. Besides health reasons, a virtual contact center can be a more economical, convenient, and higher quality way for both employers and employees.
Of course, implementing a new way of doing things may be difficult. Be certain to identify your blindspots.
How best can you equip your virtual contact center and its agents so that it remains effective and reliable in the long-term? Two quick answers, the right tools, and the right virtual team building activities for contact centers.
Going virtual does not mean you can stop interacting with your agents and supervisors. Just the opposite, you need to do more. Human interaction is essential, even more so when your people are remote. Virtual team building is now an important aspect of building a contact center from scratch or operating one long-term.
Virtual team building activities for contact centers help you interact with your agents and develop relationships amongst your team members in a fun and psychologically safe manner. It can also help maintain or set the tone for your contact center’s right work culture.
1. Virtual Boot Camp Challenge
for virtual team building activities for contact centers
Help your contact center agents commit to getting ONE thing done, every day, for 14 days with virtual training exercise events. Do a Virtual Boot Camp. Select a challenge and create a Workout Plan, QuickGuide, and instructions to obtain your challenge goal. Learn more: https://www.callcentercoach.com/call-center-supervisor-boot-camp/
2. Embrace a culture of humor
Now that you have been thrust into working virtually, there’s an entirely new set of emotions and employee engagement issues to deal with. Humor Engineer Andrew Tarvin (watch his interview) says there is a way to put those emotions to work – and it’s something they don’t teach you in business school: Humor. When you systematically assess, analyze, and act on the situations around you through positivity and play, you enjoy what you do. Engagement soars, and work doesn’t feel like so much work, even when working from home (or your child’s playroom). https://www.humorthatworks.com/for-organizations/virtual-programming/
3. Have a live remote contact center
Finding days of the month where you can have a live remote office can be a way to interact as virtual co-workers. It can be an opportunity for virtual contact center agents to learn from each other. Seeing other people hard at work can also serve as motivation for team members. One interesting tool you can use to achieve this live remote office space is https://www.sococo.com/
4. Hold virtual contact center team meetings often
Meetings are an essential part of a business. Working virtually makes them an even more crucial part of team building. Ideas will need to be constantly discussed. For even more effective virtual collaboration amongst your agents. Virtual team meetings need to be held often. These 3 tools can help you achieve effective virtual team meetings. https://biz30.timedoctor.com/virtual-meetings/
5. Hire a professional contact center virtual team building coach
There are so many professional team building coaches that provide team building activities for virtual teams. One great example is https://teambuilding.com/services/virtual-team-building. They offer a variety of team building activities that will help your team connect.
6. Shark Team for virtual team building activities for contact centers
This is a fun way of coming up with new creative ideas for making your contact center more efficient and effective. Your team members can pitch different ideas on how to make the contact center perform better. The best idea wins a prize. Team members can enter the competition as a team; this will reinforce the idea of teamwork.
7. Take personality tests
There are different personality tests offered online. One good example is https://www.16personalities.com/. Different team members can take the test and report their results to the rest of the team. This will help your team members understand themselves better as well as their team members.
8. Have Virtual Coffee Breaks
People in a traditional office setup often interact with colleagues during coffee breaks. This can also be done with a virtual contact center. You can have a coffee break with your team and use this as an opportunity to catch up with each other or discuss any issues or challenges.
9. DIY Craft Challenge
The DIY craft can be a good way to allow your team to express their creativity. It also can be a great time to have a good laugh because not everyone is gifted with being artsy. Find something easy to make and have each team member create their own artwork and even put a little twist to their own piece of art.
10. Recipe contest
With a virtual contact center, there are chances that your team is made up of people from different parts of the world or different cultures. Have your team members each prepare their favorite traditional dish while guiding others through it. Team members can vote for the best dish at the end of the contest. This activity will take several sessions, but at the end of it, your team will appreciate the cultural diversity they have within their team.
11. Virtual Book Club for virtual team building activities for contact centers
A virtual book club can be a great time to learn new things and inspire each other to do the best work possible. To ensure that this is fun and beneficial simultaneously, it is important to pick personal growth books and inspirational books. This can serve as motivation for your team to reach their goals propelling your contact center forward.
12. Donate to a cause as a team
Have each member pitch a cause that you can donate to as a team. The one with the most votes is the one that receives whatever you have decided to donate as a team. Donating as a team can bring a sense of togetherness, and it will help your team realize that they need each other.
13. Play Chat-roulette
Pair up each team member with someone else on the team. The point of chat-roulette is to have them chat with each other for an amount of time. To make things more interesting, have other team members listen to the conversation.
14. Share Childhood pictures
Sharing childhood pictures can be a great way to bond with your team. It’s hilarious, and it’s heartwarming and nostalgic. This is a moment for people to connect on an emotional level. To spice it up, people can add a back story involving when the picture was taken.
15. Team scavenger hunt
A team scavenger hunt is different from a real scavenger hunt. Team scavenger hunt involves each member handing in facts about themselves, and then the team has to try and match each fact with the correct person. This will help your team get to know each other better.
16. Have a Dedicated slack channel
Most remote teams use slack to collaborate. You can dedicate a specific channel to have people post funny jokes, gif’s and memes. You can remind the team to keep things respectful, mindful, and decent as it is still a professional platform.
17. Play the Knowledge game
One person can compile several common knowledge questions and ask other team members. The one with the most points receives a simple prize. Creating a healthy competitive spirit within your team can help you achieve goals faster.
18. Have Virtual karaoke night for virtual team building activities for contact centers
This is sure to make everyone laugh. Compile a list of songs that everyone knows, especially the classic jams. Video call is not the best place to express your vocal abilities so that everyone will sound hilarious. To make it more challenging, the team will have to assign each person a common song to sing along to.
19. Fitness challenge
A fitness challenge can also be a fun way to keep your team healthy and energized. There are so many apps that can track fitness activities, eg jogging. If the team has access to fitness tracking equipment, fitness challenges can be a fun way to bond with teammates and stay healthy. At the end of the day or week, team members have to submit their results, and the best results can win a prize.
20. A photography competition for virtual team building activities for contact centers
A simple phone is okay for this challenge. Each team member should take an artistic picture of literally anything (decent). Team members can vote on the top five best pictures. The top five best pictures or top three best pictures win a prize.
21. Storytelling
Storytelling can equip your team with many skills, such as marketing skills, sales skills, and the ability to influence. To make it even more interesting, have the team members guess if the story is based on a true story, a myth, or a completely fabricated story.
22. Online campfire for virtual team building activities for contact centers
Similar to storytelling, an online campfire involves creating the experience of campfire storytelling. To bring this to life, you can visit https://tinycampfire.net/, and they will help you create the campfire experience online.
23. Typing speed challenge
This is an exercise that can actually benefit your contact center. Create a challenge on who can type the fastest and constantly have your team members break the record for a prize. Sometimes contact centers have to interact with people on chat, and typing speed matters. This is an indirect way of having your agents improve their accuracy and typing speed.
The Importance of Virtual Team Building Activities For Contact Centers
Unlike a traditional contact center, agents do not have the liberty to interact with fellow agents, supervisors, or employers. This means there is a constant need for reassurance in different areas. They need to think faster, and they need to solve problems faster. It is important to constantly engage them in activities that improve their cognition, problem-solving skills, and job satisfaction. Human interaction is a basic need in all aspects of life, including occupation. So it matters to provide this even in a virtual setup.
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Jim Rembach is the Editor in Chief of the Customer Service Weekly and it’s Podcast host. He is President of CX Global Media and the creator of the Call Center Coach Virtual Leaders Academy. As the host of the Fast Leader Show Podcast, he has interviewed hundreds of experts, authors, academics, researchers, and practitioners on various angles, viewpoints, and perspectives for improving the customer experience. He has held positions in retail operations, contact centers, customer support, customer success, sales, and measured the customer experience. He is a certified Emotional Intelligence practitioner, Employee Retention Specialist, and recipient of numerous industry awards.